OLYMPIA (WA)
KUOW-FM [Seattle WA]
June 23, 2025
By Scott Greenstone
The federal government is suing Washington state over a new law that some Catholic priests refuse to follow.
Senate Bill 5375, signed into law by Gov. Bob Ferguson last month, adds clergy to the list of mandatory reporters of sexual abuse.
That’s common in most other states — but Washington’s new law also applies to what’s shared during confession, a usually confidential sacrament for Catholics where what you say to a priest stays in the confessional booth. Only six other states had similar laws, a federal review in 2019 found.
Washington’s new law was targeted by Trump’s justice department last month, and on Monday, DOJ lawyers argued it violates freedom of religion provisions in the First Amendment.
“Laws that explicitly target religious practices such as the Sacrament of Confession in the Catholic Church have no place in our society,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division wrote in a press release Monday. “Senate Bill 5375 unconstitutionally forces Catholic priests in Washington to choose between their obligations to the Catholic Church and their penitents or face criminal consequences.”
Ferguson, a lifelong Catholic, said via a spokesperson: “It is disappointing, but not surprising, to see the DOJ seek to shield and protect child abusers.”
Critics argue that breaking the seal of confession could result in a priest’s automatic excommunication from the church, which only the Pope has the authority to pardon.
The federal lawsuit is an intervention on behalf of Washington’s Catholic bishops, who sued Ferguson and the state earlier this month to block the law from going into effect. A spokesperson for the Washington State Catholic Conference said they aren’t involved with the Department of Justice’s efforts and had no additional comments. A hearing on the case is expected this summer.
The Seattle archdiocese declined to comment.
Democratic state Sen. Noel Frame, who sponsored the legislation and is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, said in a statement that “Whether you’re from a red state or a blue state, keeping kids safe from abuse should be a non-partisan issue.”
Last month, when the law was signed, Yakima Bishop Joseph Tyson told a local TV station that the clergy is prepared to go to jail before breaking the seal of confession.
“We need to pray for victims of sex abuse. We need victims to come forward. We need perpetrators to come forward,” Tyson said. “But this kind of law has a chilling effect on people coming forward to come to grips with what they’ve done wrong.”
This story has been updated with comments from Frame, and to clarify that the federal lawsuit is an intervention on behalf of Washington’s Catholic bishops.