Justice Department Sues Washington State Over Law Requiring Priests to Break Seal of Confession By Reporting Child Abuse
Catholic bishops and a group of Orthodox churches have also filed suits challenging the law's constitutionality.
By Gary Gately
The U.S. Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit Monday challenging the constitutionality of a Washington state law requiring priests to report child abuse or neglect revealed in confession or face criminal charges for not doing so.
The law, set to take effect July 27, “unlawfully targets clergy and, specifically, Catholic priests, in violation of their fundamental right to freely exercise their religious beliefs,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. They argue that the law violates Catholic priests’ First Amendment right to freedom of religion and the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
The law, Senate Bill 5375, would force priests to break the sacred seal of confession, which results in automatic excommunication, or face up to a year imprisonment, a $5,000 fine and possible civil liability for violating the law.
“A more direct burden on the exercise of religion would be difficult to imagine,” the suit said.
The Justice Department said in the lawsuit that it is intervening in a suit filed on May 29 by the bishops of Washington’s three dioceses challenging the law’s constitutionality.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a news release: “Laws that explicitly target religious practices such as the Sacrament of Confession in the Catholic Church have no place in our society.
“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,” Dhillon said. “The Justice Department will not sit idly by when states mount attacks on the free exercise of religion.”
The Justice Department lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Tacoma, names as defendants the state of Washington and Democratic Governor Bob Ferguson, who signed the legislation into law on May 2.
The law stipulates that priests must report suspected child abuse or neglect revealed during confession to law enforcement or the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families.
In early May, the Trump administration’s Justice Department launched an investigation into what it called the “anti-Catholic” law. The department said at the time that the law “appears on its face to violate the First Amendment” guarantee of religious freedom.
A group of Orthodox churches and an Orthodox priest also have also filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law. They made the same argument as the Justice Department and the Catholic bishops: that the law violates the First Amendment right to religious freedom and the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
Like Catholic priests, Orthodox priests are forbidden to share what they hear in confession and can be removed from the priesthood for doing so.
Attorneys representing the Orthodox churches and the priest stated in their June 16 lawsuit: “The Orthodox Church today teaches that priests have a strict religious duty to maintain the absolute confidentiality of what is disclosed in the Sacrament of Confession. Violating this mandatory religious obligation is a canonical crime and a grave sin, with severe consequences for the offending priest, including removal from the priesthood.”
The suit also said “people are unlikely to come to the sacrament and receive God’s mercy and forgiveness if they fear that their priests will share their sins with others.”
Attorneys for the Catholic bishops wrote in their lawsuit: “Washington is targeting the Roman Catholic Church in a brazen act of religious discrimination. Without any basis in law or fact, Washington now puts Roman Catholic priests to an impossible choice: violate 2,000 years of Church teaching and incur automatic excommunication or refuse to comply with Washington law and be subject to imprisonment, fine, and civil liability….
“The object of this law is clear: subject Roman Catholic clergy to dictates of the state.”
The suit said the state’s three dioceses have already adopted policies to protect children that go beyond the requirements of existing state law on reporting child abuse and neglect. The policies mandate reporting to authorities suspected abuse by clergy and other Church personnel except when it is revealed during confession, according to the lawsuit.
A broad array of organizations representing clergy sexual abuse victims, Catholic and Jewish clergy, Native American tribes, law enforcement, crisis counselors and children’s advocates lined up in support of the legislation.
But after signing the measure, Ferguson, a Catholic, said: “Protecting our kids, first, is the most important thing. This bill protects Washingtonians from abuse and harm.”
About 30 U.S. states now include clergy among those required to report child abuse or neglect, though most of them allow exceptions for information about abuse shared during confession. In a handful of states, including North Carolina, Texas and Oklahoma, failure to report child abuse revealed in confession is a criminal offense, but it’s unclear whether any priests have been prosecuted for violations.