An 83-year-old woman is challenging the constitutionality of a new state law that allows patients committed involuntarily to psychiatric hospitals to be medicated against their will.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Bangor by the Disability Rights Center of Maine, which claims that the statute violates the plaintiff's due process rights guaranteed under the 14th Amendment.

The law in question allows a committee that includes at least two licensed professionals to issue a finding that a patient should be medicated despite his or her wishes.

The plaintiff, identified only as Jane Doe, was involuntarily committed to Riverview Psychiatric Center in May, about a month after the law went into effect.