The Department of Justice on Monday filed a Complaint in Intervention (full text) in Etienne v. Ferguson, (WD WA, filed 6/23/ 2025) to become a party in a suit by Catholic bishops in Washington state challenging a recently adopted amendment to the state's mandatory child abuse reporting law that requires clergy to report child abuse or neglect even if they learn of it in a confessional. The DOJ's petition alleges in part:
7. SB 5375 directly interferes with the fundamental right of Catholic priests to freelyexercise th eir religion by forcing them to violate the sanctity and confidentiality of confessionalcommunications. No other mandatory reporter is required to forego his or her fundamental rights under the Constitution in this manner. Furthermore, a second provision of this bill expressly strips “clergy,” and no one else, from relying on any legal privileges, including the confessional privilege, as a defense to reporting child abuse and neglect. All non-religious “supervisors” may continue to rely on applicable state law privileges.
8. In addition, at about the same time SB 5375 w as enacted to deprive Catholic priests oftheir privileges under state law, Governor Ferguson signed another bill into law ... which restored legal privileges to attorneys who are mandatory reporters because they happen to work for colleges and universities, including at law school clinics.
The Justice Department issued a press release announcing their motion to intervene in the lawsuit.
