DOJ Probes Washington Law Targeting Catholic Confessionals

​The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a civil rights investigation into Washington State Senate Bill 5375, a new law that forces Catholic priests to break the seal of confession or face criminal consequences. Signed into law on May 2 by Gov. Bob Ferguson (D-WA), the bill mandates that clergy report suspected child abuse, even if the information is obtained during a sacramental confession. The investigation focuses on whether the law violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom by criminalizing a practice that has been protected under both religious doctrine and U.S. legal tradition for more than two centuries.
 
SB 5375 adds clergy to the list of mandatory reporters of child abuse but does so with one key difference: it refuses to honor the long-standing legal and religious protection for confessional secrecy. Unlike doctors or lawyers, clergy are denied any exemption.
 
“This law demands that Catholic priests violate their deeply held faith in order to obey the law,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, calling the law a violation of the First Amendment. The Catholic Church, for its part, has warned that any priest who complies will be automatically excommunicated, reinforcing the absolute nature of the confessional seal in Catholic doctrine.
 
While the law is presented as a measure to protect children, its specific targeting of clergy reveals a more troubling agenda. Other professions maintain their confidentiality rights. Only clergy are denied theirs. That double standard invites constitutional scrutiny and raises the question of whether the law was crafted not just for protection, but for punishment. And it destroys any semblance of either religious neutrality or general applicability in the process.
 
Proponents argue that the law is necessary. But even if the goal is admirable, the means are unlawful. No predator will confess if he knows it will lead to arrest. The practical result is a law that does nothing to prevent abuse and everything to trample religious rights.
 
Gov. Ferguson dismissed the federal investigation as political. Yet it is the state’s law that politicizes religion, forcing clergy to choose between faith and compliance. That’s not accountability – it’s coercion.
 
The law is set to take effect on July 27. Unless blocked in court, priests in Washington State will soon face an impossible choice: obey the law and betray their faith, or uphold their faith and face legal punishment. That’s a choice no free society should ever demand of its citizens.

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