A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement of a Washington state law requiring priests to report admonitions of abuse made within the confession.
United States District Judge David G. Estudillo, a Biden appointee, issued a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of Senate Bill 5375, which was set to take effect on July 27.
Estudillo wrote that for the plaintiffs, which was a group of Roman Catholic clergy, “breaching the seal of Confession entails automatic excommunication and the risk of eternal damnation.”
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“There is no question that SB 5375 burdens Plaintiffs’ free exercise of religion,” he 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.”
Estudillo also noted that, in contrast to clergy, other groups of adults, including attorneys, parents and law professors, are not required to be mandatory reporters under state law.
“Thus, SB 5375 is neither neutral nor generally applicable because it treats religious activity less favorably than comparable secular activity,” he continued.
“The State has not presented compelling evidence that the exemption for law professors and those they supervise is not comparable in terms of the ‘risk’ posed to children by a communications privilege exception to the mandatory reporting requirement.”
Mark Rienzi, president and CEO of Becket, a religious liberty law firm that is helping to represent the plaintiffs, released a statement on Friday celebrating the decision.
“This ruling confirms what has always been true: In America, government officials have no business prying into the confessional,” said Rienzi.
“By protecting the seal of confession, the court has also safeguarded the basic principle that people of all faiths should be free to practice their beliefs without government interference.”
Introduced in January, SB 5375 adds clergy among the group of professionals who are mandated by law to report any suspicion of sexual abuse of children to authorities.
The bill garnered controversy for not exempting the confessional from the reporting mandate, despite it being against Catholic teaching to disclose sins revealed during confession.
“Except for members of the clergy, no one shall be required to report under this section when he or she obtains the information solely as a result of a privileged communication,” stated SB 5375.
“It’s long past time for this protection for children,” said state Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, the sponsor of SB 5375, as quoted by The Washington State Standard.
“Members of the clergy play such an important role in the lives of children, like teachers and doctors do, and just like those other trusted adults, clergy should be mandatory reporters.”
SB 5375 had the backing of the interfaith advocacy organization The Clergy Accountability Coalition, which argues that the bill was necessary to combat child abuse.
“If a state cannot regulate religions,” said Sharon Huling of CAC in a statement released in January, “then they should not be able to provide religions with exemptions either.”
In May, the bishops of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle and the Dioceses of Spokane and Yakima in Washington, along with Catholic priests in the state, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Tacoma.
The lawsuit named as defendants Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, Washington Attorney General Nicholas Brown and every county prosecuting attorney in the state.
Also in May, the United States Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division opened an investigation into the law, believing that the measure likely violated the First Amendment.
