SEATTLE (WA)
Christian Post [Washington DC]
May 31, 2025
By Ryan Foley
Roman Catholic bishops from the state of Washington have filed a lawsuit challenging a new law that forces them to violate the confessional seal, calling it “a blatant intrusion” on their First Amendment rights.
The bishops of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle and the Dioceses of Spokane and Yakima in Washington, along with Catholic priests in the state, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Tacoma on Thursday.
The lawsuit, which names Washington’s Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson, Democratic Attorney General Nicholas Brown and every county prosecuting attorney in the state as defendants, alleges that Senate Bill 5375 is unconstitutional.
The measure, signed into law by Ferguson earlier this month, adds members of the clergy to a list of professionals who are required to report instances of child abuse or neglect to law enforcement. Under the legislation, clergy are singled out as the one group that must report child abuse to law enforcement even if the information is obtained “solely as a result of privileged communication.”
Current Washington law states that “A member of the clergy, a Christian science practitioner listed in the Christian Science Journal, or a priest shall not, without the consent of a person making the confession or sacred confidence, be examined as to any confession or sacred confidence made to him or her in his or her professional character, in the course of discipline enjoined by the church to which he or she belongs.”
As explained in the lawsuit, the new law is scheduled to go into effect on July 27, and the exemption for reporting instances of abuse reported during confessions will disappear.
By contrast, protections for all other “privileged communications,” including those between an attorney and client and a physician and patient, will remain in effect. The lawsuit cites this fact as raising the appearance that the measure was specifically designed to target members of the clergy.
The complaint mentions how priests are bound by the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law to keep all information they receive from penitents during the sacrament of confession confidential.
The Code of Canon Law states, “The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason.” A provision in the Code of Canon Law authorizes the excommunication of any priest who “directly violates the sacramental seal.”
“The Hobson’s choice to which Senate Bill 5375 puts Roman Catholic priests is a blatant intrusion into the free exercise of the Roman Catholic faith in violation of the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 11 of the Washington Constitution,” the lawsuit states.
The complaint seeks a ruling declaring that Senate Bill 5375 is an unconstitutional violation of the aforementioned provisions of the state and U.S. constitutions and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiffs also ask a federal judge to prevent state officials from enforcing the law and award costs and attorneys’ fees.
While the complaint noted that the leaders of all three dioceses of Washington have assured Catholics in the state that priests are “committed to keeping the seal of confession — even to the point of going to jail,” the lawsuit still expresses concern that the new law “risks chilling the religious exercise of penitents.”
According to the complaint, “Knowing that the inviolability of the sacramental seal is threatened by a temporal legal obligation to report suspected abuse or neglect learned in the confessional, penitents may refuse to confess all their sins in confession or refuse to seek the sacrament of confession at all. Under either circumstance, the penitent will remain separated from Christ’s Church and from God, risking their eternal damnation to Hell.”
Thursday’s lawsuit is not the first time Senate Bill 5375 has faced legal scrutiny since its passage.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division opened an investigation into “the development and passage” of the law. The DOJ characterized the measure as a likely violation of the First Amendment.
The law is supported by the Wisconsin-based progressive secular legal organization Freedom From Religion Foundation, which contends that the law “closes a longstanding and dangerous loophole that allowed clergy to withhold information about child abuse disclosed in confessional or pastoral settings.”
“The government has a compelling interest in protecting children from abuse,” FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliott said in a statement. “This law does not target Christianity or Catholicism — it applies equally to all clergy. Religious freedom does not include the right to conceal abuse. The DOJ’s position undermines both child safety and the Constitution it purports to defend.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com