WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington State Standard [Olympia, WA]
June 23, 2025
By Jerry Cornfield
Washington bishops sued last month to prevent the law from taking effect. Now, the Trump administration is looking to back their lawsuit.
The Trump Administration moved Monday to join a legal fight to overturn a new Washington law requiring religious leaders to report child abuse or neglect even when it is disclosed in confession.
A motion filed in federal court by the Department of Justice argues the law, which takes effect next month, is unconstitutional because it “deprives Catholic priests of their fundamental right to freely exercise their religious beliefs, as guaranteed under the First Amendment.”
“The punishment for directly violating the sacramental seal of Confession is excommunication. A more direct burden on the exercise of religion would be difficult to imagine,” federal attorneys wrote in their motion to intervene in a case brought by Washington bishops last month.
That case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
At issue is Senate Bill 5375, which will take effect July 27. It adds clergy members to the state’s list of individuals legally required to report suspected child abuse to law enforcement or the Department of Children, Youth and Families.
Disclosures in confession or other rites where the religious leader is bound to confidentiality are not exempt. But under the law, clergy will retain their privilege to avoid testifying in related court cases or criminal proceedings.
Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle, along with Bishop Joseph Tyson of Yakima and Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane, sued May 29 arguing the law violates their First Amendment right to practice religion free of government interference, and is religious discrimination because it will force priests to violate their sacred vows or face punishment by the state.
Gov. Bob Ferguson, Attorney General Nick Brown and the prosecuting attorney in each of Washington’s 39 counties are named as defendants.
The Department of Justice is only seeking to sue the state and wants the federal court to bar enforcement of the law against Catholic priests who refuse to disclose information obtained in confession.
“The Justice Department will not sit idly by when States mount attacks on the free exercise of religion,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a press release.
Attorney General Nick Brown declined to comment on the new filing.
“We will review this complaint and respond in court,” said Mike Faulk, deputy communications director for the Attorney General’s Office.
Monday’s move isn’t unexpected. On May 5, the Department of Justice announced it had opened a civil rights investigation into the “apparent conflict” of the new law with “the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment.”
Ferguson, a Catholic, said when he signed the bill that requiring disclosures learned in confession did not give him pause.
Weeks later, when the legal fight began, the governor said he was “disappointed my Church is filing a federal lawsuit to protect individuals who abuse kids.” Republish
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Jerry Cornfield joined the Standard after 20 years covering Olympia statehouse news for The Everett Herald. Earlier in his career, he worked for daily and weekly papers in Santa Barbara, California.
Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.