Following lawsuits from the DOJ and local bishops, Washington will no longer require faith leaders to report child abuse admissions made during confession.
Oct. 13, 2025, 3:27 PM EDT
By Ja’han Jones
Officials in the state of Washington have agreed to water down a child abuse law after pressure from the Trump administration and local Catholic leaders.
Catholic bishops and the Trump administration had filed lawsuits seeking to overturn a bill signed by Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat and a Catholic, that required faith leaders of all denominations to report allegations of abuse they received in private religious settings — including confession. [click here to rread more from source]
LLM-generated 4-paragraph summary:
Washington Rolls Back Clergy Reporting Law Under Legal and Federal Pressure
Washington state has agreed to scale back a child protection law that would have required religious leaders to report disclosures of child abuse made during confession or similar private religious settings. The original legislation, signed by Democratic Governor Bob Ferguson, applied to faith leaders across all denominations and was partly inspired by abuse cases within Jehovah’s Witness congregations. However, the law quickly faced legal challenges from both Catholic bishops in the state and the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, who argued it constituted religious discrimination.
A federal court temporarily halted enforcement of the law in July, and Washington’s attorney general subsequently negotiated a compromise. Under the new agreement, clergy will still be classified as mandatory reporters in most circumstances, but prosecutors will not pursue charges against religious leaders for failing to disclose abuse they learned about exclusively through confession or its religious equivalent. The arrangement is pending formal court approval.
The rollback is particularly notable given Washington’s stated ambition to close a loophole that exists in most U.S. states. A 2022 investigation highlighted how so-called clergy-penitent privilege laws have long protected religious institutions from accountability by shielding confessional disclosures from legal scrutiny. Washington had been among a small group of states attempting to eliminate that protection — a goal that has now been significantly curtailed.
The outcome drew sharp reactions from both sides. Governor Ferguson, himself a Catholic, had previously criticized his own church for suing to shield potential abusers, expressing deep disappointment at the bishops’ legal strategy. Church officials, meanwhile, defended the confession exemption, insisting that protecting children and preserving the confidentiality of the sacrament are goals that can coexist — a position that critics argue prioritizes institutional tradition over child safety.
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