New Jersey
Appeals court rules state’s medically assisted suicide law is for residents only
A New Jersey law that permits terminally ill people to seek life-ending drugs applies only to residents of the state and not those from beyond its borders, a federal appeals court ruled.
The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments challenging New Jersey’s residency requirement while acknowledging how fraught end-of-life decisions can be. The court noted that not all states have adopted the same approach.
“Death brings good things to an end, but rarely neatly,” U.S. Circuit Court Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote in the Friday opinion. “Many terminally ill patients face a grim reality: imminent, painful death. Some may want to avert that suffering by enlisting a doctor’s help to end their own lives. New Jersey lets its residents make that choice—but only its residents.”
In addition to New Jersey, the District of Columbia and 10 other states permit assisted suicide in terminal cases. The majority of states limit the option to its residents. Oregon and Vermont authorize it for everyone.
The case was brought by a Delaware woman with stage 4 lymphoma who wanted the option of doctor-assisted suicide and challenged the New Jersey residency requirement but died after oral arguments in the case. Delaware will begin to allow doctor-assisted suicide on Jan. 1.
A New Jersey doctor who sought to help patients like the Delaware woman also challenged the law. Initially, there were other plaintiffs, including a Pennsylvania woman who had metastatic breast cancer but who died before the appeal of a lower court’s dismissal of the challenge, as well as another New Jersey doctor who has retired.
Dr. Paul Bryman, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement he was disappointed in the opinion.
“Terminal patients outside New Jersey should have the option of medical aid in dying without having to travel long distances,” he said.
Messages seeking comment Wednesday were left with attorneys for others challenging the law.
New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed the legislation in 2019, saying that while his Catholic faith might lead him not to end his own life if he were terminally ill, he wouldn’t deny the choice to others.
The law requires two doctors to sign off on a request and that the terminally ill patient be deemed an adult resident of New Jersey who can make such a decision, who voluntarily expresses a wish to die and who has a prognosis of six months or fewer to live.
It requires patients to request the medication twice and says they must be given a chance to rescind their decision. At least one of the requests must be in writing and signed by two witnesses.
At least one witness cannot be a relative, entitled to any portion of the person’s estate, the owner of the health care facility where the patient is getting treatment or a worker there, or be the patient’s doctor.
Under the law, patients must administer the drug themselves, and their attending physician would be required to offer other treatment options, including palliative care.
A lower court dismissed the challengers’ complaint, reasoning that doctor-assisted suicide is not a fundamental privilege states must afford to non-residents.
The appeals court agreed.
“In our federal system, states are free to experiment with policies as grave as letting doctors assist suicide. Other states are free to keep it a crime,” the opinion said. “This novel option does not appear to be a fundamental privilege, let alone a fundamental right, that states must accord visitors.”
Georgia
Former official at university indicted on charges of lying about sexual assault
CLEVELAND, Ga. (AP) — A former vice president at a Baptist university in northeast Georgia has been indicted on charges that he lied when he denied sexually assaulting a woman who was a student and later a university employee.
A White County grand jury on Monday indicted Bradley Reynolds on three felony counts of making false statements to law enforcement.
Reynolds was the vice president of academic affairs at Truett McConnell University in Cleveland, Georgia, until he resigned in 2024. Reynolds didn’t respond to phone calls from news outlets seeking comment.
The indictment stems from a March 2024 interview of Reynolds by sheriff’s investigator Anthony Sims. Grand jurors allege Reynolds lied when he told Sims he never had a sexual relationship with the woman. They also allege Reynolds lied when he denied controlling an email account that sent more than 300 emails that the women provided to investigators. Finally, they allege Reynolds lied when he denied telling the woman that his wife was going to die and he was going to make the woman his second wife.
The question of Reynolds’ behavior and whether university officials covered it up have roiled Truett McConnell, a conservative 3,100-student college that normally sees little public protest. University trustees in September removed President Emir Caner, who had been on leave since June, after an investigator presented findings. Trustees made John Yarbrough the interim president.
Caner has denied concealing or ignoring any assaults. Opponents of Caner say he retaliated against two administrators who pressed him on the allegations, pushing them out of their jobs. The school has denied any retaliation.
Southern Baptists have faced allegations that hundreds of church leaders and workers have abused people over the years and that the denomination hasn’t done enough to prevent abuse.
The former student discussed her sexual assault allegations on a May 29 podcast. She claims she was repeatedly assaulted when she went to Bradley’s home for Bible study.
Truett McConnell issued a statement May 30, saying that it first became aware of the allegations in February 2024, when the administrator informed the university he was under investigation by the White County Sheriff’s Office “regarding an inappropriate relationship.” The university said Bradley’s employment ended within days and that school leaders later learned that the administrator had sent
“hundreds” of “sexually-explicit and theologically-twisted” emails from a personal account.
White County sheriff’s investigators initially concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to seek criminal charges. But District Attorney Jeff Langley reopened the case.
Marcia Shein, the woman’s attorney, told the Now Habersham website that her client is “very grateful that the DA in White County investigated, and that the district attorney presented the case to the grand jury. Now we’ll just let the justice system proceed.”
Langley said authorities will coordinate next steps to get Reynolds to Georgia to answer to the charges.
Appeals court rules state’s medically assisted suicide law is for residents only
A New Jersey law that permits terminally ill people to seek life-ending drugs applies only to residents of the state and not those from beyond its borders, a federal appeals court ruled.
The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments challenging New Jersey’s residency requirement while acknowledging how fraught end-of-life decisions can be. The court noted that not all states have adopted the same approach.
“Death brings good things to an end, but rarely neatly,” U.S. Circuit Court Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote in the Friday opinion. “Many terminally ill patients face a grim reality: imminent, painful death. Some may want to avert that suffering by enlisting a doctor’s help to end their own lives. New Jersey lets its residents make that choice—but only its residents.”
In addition to New Jersey, the District of Columbia and 10 other states permit assisted suicide in terminal cases. The majority of states limit the option to its residents. Oregon and Vermont authorize it for everyone.
The case was brought by a Delaware woman with stage 4 lymphoma who wanted the option of doctor-assisted suicide and challenged the New Jersey residency requirement but died after oral arguments in the case. Delaware will begin to allow doctor-assisted suicide on Jan. 1.
A New Jersey doctor who sought to help patients like the Delaware woman also challenged the law. Initially, there were other plaintiffs, including a Pennsylvania woman who had metastatic breast cancer but who died before the appeal of a lower court’s dismissal of the challenge, as well as another New Jersey doctor who has retired.
Dr. Paul Bryman, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement he was disappointed in the opinion.
“Terminal patients outside New Jersey should have the option of medical aid in dying without having to travel long distances,” he said.
Messages seeking comment Wednesday were left with attorneys for others challenging the law.
New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed the legislation in 2019, saying that while his Catholic faith might lead him not to end his own life if he were terminally ill, he wouldn’t deny the choice to others.
The law requires two doctors to sign off on a request and that the terminally ill patient be deemed an adult resident of New Jersey who can make such a decision, who voluntarily expresses a wish to die and who has a prognosis of six months or fewer to live.
It requires patients to request the medication twice and says they must be given a chance to rescind their decision. At least one of the requests must be in writing and signed by two witnesses.
At least one witness cannot be a relative, entitled to any portion of the person’s estate, the owner of the health care facility where the patient is getting treatment or a worker there, or be the patient’s doctor.
Under the law, patients must administer the drug themselves, and their attending physician would be required to offer other treatment options, including palliative care.
A lower court dismissed the challengers’ complaint, reasoning that doctor-assisted suicide is not a fundamental privilege states must afford to non-residents.
The appeals court agreed.
“In our federal system, states are free to experiment with policies as grave as letting doctors assist suicide. Other states are free to keep it a crime,” the opinion said. “This novel option does not appear to be a fundamental privilege, let alone a fundamental right, that states must accord visitors.”
Georgia
Former official at university indicted on charges of lying about sexual assault
CLEVELAND, Ga. (AP) — A former vice president at a Baptist university in northeast Georgia has been indicted on charges that he lied when he denied sexually assaulting a woman who was a student and later a university employee.
A White County grand jury on Monday indicted Bradley Reynolds on three felony counts of making false statements to law enforcement.
Reynolds was the vice president of academic affairs at Truett McConnell University in Cleveland, Georgia, until he resigned in 2024. Reynolds didn’t respond to phone calls from news outlets seeking comment.
The indictment stems from a March 2024 interview of Reynolds by sheriff’s investigator Anthony Sims. Grand jurors allege Reynolds lied when he told Sims he never had a sexual relationship with the woman. They also allege Reynolds lied when he denied controlling an email account that sent more than 300 emails that the women provided to investigators. Finally, they allege Reynolds lied when he denied telling the woman that his wife was going to die and he was going to make the woman his second wife.
The question of Reynolds’ behavior and whether university officials covered it up have roiled Truett McConnell, a conservative 3,100-student college that normally sees little public protest. University trustees in September removed President Emir Caner, who had been on leave since June, after an investigator presented findings. Trustees made John Yarbrough the interim president.
Caner has denied concealing or ignoring any assaults. Opponents of Caner say he retaliated against two administrators who pressed him on the allegations, pushing them out of their jobs. The school has denied any retaliation.
Southern Baptists have faced allegations that hundreds of church leaders and workers have abused people over the years and that the denomination hasn’t done enough to prevent abuse.
The former student discussed her sexual assault allegations on a May 29 podcast. She claims she was repeatedly assaulted when she went to Bradley’s home for Bible study.
Truett McConnell issued a statement May 30, saying that it first became aware of the allegations in February 2024, when the administrator informed the university he was under investigation by the White County Sheriff’s Office “regarding an inappropriate relationship.” The university said Bradley’s employment ended within days and that school leaders later learned that the administrator had sent
“hundreds” of “sexually-explicit and theologically-twisted” emails from a personal account.
White County sheriff’s investigators initially concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to seek criminal charges. But District Attorney Jeff Langley reopened the case.
Marcia Shein, the woman’s attorney, told the Now Habersham website that her client is “very grateful that the DA in White County investigated, and that the district attorney presented the case to the grand jury. Now we’ll just let the justice system proceed.”
Langley said authorities will coordinate next steps to get Reynolds to Georgia to answer to the charges.
