DOJ opens inquiry into new WA law requiring clergy to report abuse
The U.S. Department of Justice said it has opened an investigation into the “development and passage” of a new Washington law that requires clergy to report instances of child abuse or neglect, which the Justice Department says could violate the First Amendment’s right to free exercise of religion.
State Senate Bill 5375, signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson into law Friday, adds members of the clergy to the list of professionals who are mandated reporters, which means they are required to report information related to abuse or neglect to law enforcement or other agencies. The law doesn’t include exemptions when information is obtained during confession.
The bill was sponsored by Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, a childhood sexual abuse survivor, and followed two years of hurdles in the Legislature.
In a news release, the Justice Department called the law “anti-Catholic,” citing the law’s lack of exemption for Catholic priests.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in the news release that the law demands Catholic priests “violate their deeply held faith in order to obey the law.”
In a statement, Ferguson said: “We look forward to protecting Washington kids from sexual abuse in the face of this ‘investigation’ from the Trump Administration.”
A spokesperson for the state attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Seattle Archbishop Paul Etienne said in a statement posted Sunday that the Archdiocese of Seattle’s policies already require priests to be mandatory reporters, but not for information obtained during confession. He called the new law an overreach. In Spokane, Bishop Thomas Daily reiterated his statement from earlier this year that bishops and priests are prepared to go to jail to keep their commitment.
More than half of U.S. states make clergy mandatory reporters, but Washington joins just a few, like New Hampshire and West Virginia, where those who are bound to confidentiality are not exempt. Clergy do retain their privilege to not be compelled to testify in a court case or criminal proceeding.
Representatives for the Archdiocese of Seattle and the Washington State Catholic Conference testified against SB 5375 during a public hearing this past legislative session as lawmakers fiercely debated an exemption for what is disclosed in confession.
Bishop Frank Schuster with the Archdiocese of Seattle said the penalty for breaking that seal is excommunication from the church. It is “impossible,” he said for a priest to comply with the bill.
Sharon Huling with the Clergy Accountability Coalition, in support of the legislation, argued in January the state constitution guarantees absolute freedom of conscience in all matters religious, but “it should not be so construed to excuse acts of licentiousness or justify practices inconsistent with the peace and safety of the state.”
“If the state cannot regulate religions, you should not be able to provide religions with exemptions either,” she said in January. “To be clear, the only people who have to worry about the privacy of their confession are child rapists and abusers.”
The law takes effect July 27.