DOJ Probes Washington State Law Requiring Priests to Report Confessions of Child Abuse

Calling the statute ‘Anti-Catholic,’ federal officials say it would violate the Constitution by forcing clergy to break the seal of confession.

A wooden confessional, in a file photo. Quisquilia/Shutterstock

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a civil rights investigation into a new Washington state law that requires clergy to report child abuse or neglect revealed during confession.

In a May 5 announcement, the DOJ cited potential First Amendment violations and “Anti-Catholic” bias.

Senate Bill 5375, signed into law on May 2 by Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, mandates that clergy report suspected child abuse or neglect even if the information was obtained through religious confession. The law is set to take effect July 27 and does not include exemptions for clergy-penitent privilege.

According to a Justice Department press release on May 5, the law “appears on its face to violate the First Amendment,” and “singles out ‘members of the clergy’ as the only ‘supervisors’ who may not rely on applicable legal privileges, including religious confessions, as a defense to mandatory reporting.”

“SB 5375 demands that Catholic Priests violate their deeply held faith in order to obey the law, a violation of the Constitution and a breach of the free exercise of religion cannot stand under our Constitutional system of government,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.

“Worse, the law appears to single out clergy as not entitled to assert applicable privileges, as compared to other reporting professionals. We take this matter very seriously and look forward to Washington State’s cooperation with our investigation.”

The law passed the Washington Senate by a vote of 28–20 and the House by 64–31. It amends the state’s mandatory reporting rules to include clergy with no exception for information obtained through confession. The bill also specifies that clergy supervisors cannot use religious privilege to avoid obligations to report abuse.

The Washington State Catholic Conference, which represents the bishops of Seattle, Spokane, and Yakima, previously opposed the measure.

Archbishop Paul D. Etienne, in a statement from the conference on May 4, wrote, “Catholic clergy may not violate the seal of confession—or they will be excommunicated from the Church.”

“This new law singles out religion and is clearly both government overreach and a double standard. The line between Church and state has been crossed and needs to be walked back. People of every religion in the State of Washington and beyond should be alarmed by this overreach of our Legislature and Governor,” he said.

Supporters of the bill said it closed a decades-old loophole that allowed some clergy to withhold knowledge of child abuse from law enforcement.

The Washington Catholic Accountability Project described it as Washington state’s “last chance to protect children” and urged lawmakers at the time to pass the bill without religious exemptions.

“This marks the final stretch in a 20-year fight to close Washington’s glaring, long-standing loophole, which allows clergy to withhold knowledge of child abuse from authorities preventing them from investigating to ensure a child’s safety and well-being,” the group said at the time.

The coalition includes dozens of advocacy groups, faith leaders, and legal organizations that contend clergy should be held to the same reporting standards as teachers, doctors, and social workers.

The Epoch Times reached out to the group and did not hear back by publication time.

The office of Gov. Ferguson did not respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times on the Justice Department’s announcement before publication.