The US Department of Justice announced a new lawsuit against Washington state over a new law, Senate Bill 5375, that requires clergy members to report cases of child abuse and neglect, even when such information violates the confidentiality of the secret of confession. confession

According to the DOJ, the confessional privilege is a long-standing legal protection that allows clergy to keep confidential any information shared during a confession.

The Department of Justice's lawsuit argues that SB 5375 violates the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment by denying the free exercise of religion.

As the Department of Justice's lawsuit explains, the violations imposed by this new law on all practicing members of the Catholic Church, including Catholic priests who administer the sacrament and Catholic penitents who participate in the rite, include deprivations of the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

“Laws that explicitly attack religious practices like the Sacrament of Confession in the Catholic Church have no place in our society,” stated Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

"Senate Bill 5375 unconstitutionally forces Catholic priests in Washington to choose between their obligations to the Catholic Church and its penitents or face criminal consequences, while treating the priest-penitent privilege differently than other well-established privileges. The Justice Department will not stand idly by when states attack the free exercise of religion."

The Justice Department says it is intervening in Etienne v. Ferguson, a lawsuit filed in May by Catholic bishops in Washington over the new law.