In a hearing Friday, federal Judge Tharp denied a request for a temporary injunction against the Illinois End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act. The lawsuit, Payne v. Pritzker, aimed to prevent the law from taking effect. The law will go into effect on September 12 as planned.
Payne v. Pritzker was filed on June 11, 2026, in federal district court in Illinois. The lawsuit is similar to legal challenges to medical aid-in-dying laws in California, Colorado, Delaware, and New York.
On August 24, 2026, Compassion Legal: The End-of-Life Justice Center at Compassion & Choices, along with pro bono partners at WilmerHale, filed a motion to intervene and asked the court to consider an opposition to the preliminary injunction on behalf of four Illinois residents and Compassion & Choices Action Network in a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the recently passed and signed Illinois End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act (also known as ‘Deb’s Law’).
On September 2, the motion to intervene was denied.
“Deb’s Law is clear and unequivocal that disability alone does not automatically qualify someone for access to this healthcare option,” Amy Subach, Associate Staff Attorney with Compassion Legal, stated. “These laws are about compassion, dignity, and respecting the healthcare choices of terminally ill adults when it matters most, not discrimination. We are disappointed our motion to intervene on behalf of these brave Illinoisans was denied, and we are working on our next steps to ensure these advocates’ voices are part of the conversation”.”
Anti-medical aid-in-dying groups have been attacking state medical aid-in-dying policies in the courts since the late 1990s without success. Courts have consistently held that medical aid-in-dying laws do not discriminate on the basis of age or disability, and that the laws simply serve to increase end-of-life options for people who qualify.
Most recently, a similar lawsuit was dismissed in New York and the law went into effect as scheduled on August 5, 2026.
In addition to Payne vs. Pritzker, two other lawsuits have been filed to prevent Deb’s Law from going into effect as scheduled. On September 3, in Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm v. Prince, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, two orders of Catholic nuns, and an Illinois pharmacist sued the state of Illinois, claiming that the new law violates the plaintiffs religious beliefs and aiming to prevent it from going into effect. On August 11, four Illinois physicians, a Catholic Bishop, and the Lutheran Care Center also sued the state of Illinois with a similar claim. A limited and narrow temporary injunction was granted allowing the plaintiffs in that case, Kirchoff v. Treto, an exemption from the law while the lawsuit proceeds. No hearings have been scheduled and a temporary injunction has not yet been requested in Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm v. Prince.
Since the 1997 implementation of the nation’s first medical aid-in-dying law — the Oregon Death with Dignity Act — medical aid in dying remains completely voluntary for patients and physicians alike in all authorized jurisdictions.
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