Washington will not require clergy to report information obtained from confessions

(CN) — Washington reached an agreement with church leaders Friday over a controversial mandatory reporting law that would require clergy to report child abuse disclosures made in sacramental confession.

The agreement stipulates that state and county prosecutors will not enforce mandatory reporting requirements for information communicated solely through sacramental confession and other sacred confidences.

“Today’s agreement respects the court’s decision in this case and maintains important protections for children,” Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement. “It keeps crucial portions of Washington’s mandatory reporting law in place, while also preserving the Legislature’s authority to address issues with the law identified by the court.”

The agreement ends two lawsuits by church leaders over Senate Bill 5375, which made clergy mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect. The law required reporting suspected abuse, but still protected clergy from being forced to testify about the disclosures in court.

The Catholic bishops sued the state in May, claiming the law unfairly targeted clergy and forced them to choose “between eternal damnation or criminal prosecution.” The Trump administration intervened, urging a federal court to block the law.

On July 18, U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo issued a permanent injunction, writing that clergy were likely to prove the law violated the First Amendment’s free exercise clause by forcing them to choose between faith and the law.

“There is no question that SB 5375 burdens plaintiffs’ free exercise of religion,” the Joe Biden appointee wrote. “In situations where plaintiffs hear confessions related to child abuse or neglect, SB 5375 places them in the position of either complying with the requirements of their faith or violating the law.”

Hiram Sasser, executive general counsel for First Liberty Institute, which represents plaintiffs in the first lawsuit, called the agreement “credit” to Washington and church leaders for working “to protect religious liberty while seeking to eradicate the scourge of sexual abuse.”

John Bursch, vice president of appellate advocacy and senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented plaintiffs in the second case, said they were “pleased the state agreed to swiftly restore the constitutionally protected freedom of churches and priests.”

“The First Amendment guarantees that governments cannot single out religious believers for worse treatment,” he said. “Washington was targeting priests by compelling them to break the sacred confidentiality of confession while protecting other confidential communications, like those between attorneys and their clients. That’s rank religious discrimination.”

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