Washington passed a law requiring clergy to report child abuse, even when they learn about it in confession. Catholic bishops sued to block it. Trump’s Justice Department jumped in to help them. A federal judge just ruled in their favor. Priests in Washington can now legally stay silent about child abuse they hear about in a confessional booth.
A federal judge ruled that Catholic priests in Washington state cannot be required to report child abuse or neglect they learn about through confession, after the Trump administration intervened specifically to help block the law.
What the Law Actually Required
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat and a practicing Catholic, signed Senate Bill 5375 into law in May 2025. The law added clergy members of all faiths, priests, ministers, rabbis, and imams alike, to the state’s list of mandatory reporters, meaning they’d face a gross misdemeanor charge if they learned about child abuse or neglect and failed to report it to the state or law enforcement.
The bill’s sponsor, Democratic state Sen. Noel Frame, said she was motivated by reports that Jehovah’s Witness congregations had covered up child sexual abuse for years. This wasn’t a bill written to single out Catholics. It applied identically across every religious denomination in the state. Frame, herself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, said plainly: “Whether you’re from a red state or a blue state, keeping kids safe from abuse should be a non-partisan issue.”
Only six other states had similar clergy-reporting laws that reached this far, according to a 2019 federal review.
Catholic Bishops Sued, and Trump’s DOJ Jumped In to Help
Three Roman Catholic bishops in Washington sued the state, arguing the law forced priests to choose between their faith’s sacred seal of confession and the threat of criminal prosecution. Yakima Bishop Joseph Tyson told local television that clergy were prepared to go to jail rather than break the confessional seal.
Then, in June 2025, the Trump administration’s Justice Department formally intervened on the bishops’ side, describing a religiously neutral child-safety law as “anti-Catholic.” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, wrote that the law “unconstitutionally forces Catholic priests in Washington to choose between their obligations to the Catholic Church and their penitents,” and declared that “the Justice Department will not sit idly by when states mount attacks on the free exercise of religion.”
Notice the framing. The Trump administration cast a law requiring adults to report child abuse as an attack on religious freedom, rather than describing what the law actually does: closing a loophole that has historically let abuse go unreported for decades.
The Governor Who Signed the Law Pushed Back Directly
Ferguson, the Catholic governor who signed the bill, didn’t hold back when his own church sued him over it. He said he was “disappointed my Church is filing a federal lawsuit to protect individuals who abuse kids.”
Jean Hill, executive director of the Washington State Catholic Conference, offered a softer but still pointed response: “Preventing abuse and upholding the sacred seal of confession are not mutually exclusive; we can and must do both.” Mary Dispenza, a former nun and survivor of clergy sexual abuse, went further, arguing the seal of confession is a church practice rather than a divine mandate, one that has historically allowed abuse to continue unchecked.
The Judge Sided With the Church and the Trump Administration
U.S. District Judge David Estudillo granted a preliminary injunction, ruling the priests were “likely to succeed” in their lawsuit and blocking the confession-related portion of the law just days before it was set to take effect on July 27. The DOJ, notably, had pushed for something broader than what the bishops themselves sought: while the Church’s lawsuit targeted only the confession provision, the Justice Department argued for striking down the entire law and restoring blanket immunity for all clergy from mandatory reporting.
Following continued legal pressure from both the DOJ and the bishops, Washington ultimately agreed to water down the law entirely, dropping the requirement that faith leaders report abuse admissions made specifically during confession or other private religious settings.
Part of a Broader Pattern
This isn’t an isolated legal fight for the Trump administration on child abuse policy. Earlier in 2025, the administration stripped federal funding from a program that provides legal advocates for victims of child sex trafficking, and dissolved a Justice Department unit that had played a key role in combating child exploitation cases.
Taken together, a pattern emerges: an administration that has actively worked to weaken both the funding infrastructure meant to help child abuse and trafficking victims, and now, a state law specifically designed to close a reporting gap that let known cases of abuse go unaddressed for years.
Washington passed a religiously neutral law requiring clergy of every faith to report child abuse. Catholic bishops sued to carve out an exception for confession. The Trump administration didn’t just decline to defend the law; it actively intervened to help kill it, and asked a court to go even further than the bishops themselves had requested. A federal judge agreed, and the state ultimately caved. Priests in Washington can now legally hear a confession describing child abuse and say nothing to anyone.