Catholic bishops in Washington state are suing to block a law that would force priests to choose between breaking the seal of confession and getting excommunicated or receiving jail time.

The Democratic governor of Washington, Bob Ferguson, signed the measure into law earlier this month. It requires clergy members to report incidents of child abuse and neglect if they learn of it during confession. However, the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law states that those who violate the seal of confession will be excommunicated. 

Amid the concerns that the law violates the First Amendment, the Archdiocese of Seattle and the dioceses of Spokane and Yakima are suing to block the law. 

The executive director of the Washington State Catholic Conference, Jean Hill, told the Northwest Catholic publication, “Confession offers the faithful a confidential space to seek God’s mercy and guidance.”

“This trust is sacred, and any law that jeopardizes it risks discouraging those who recognize the harm they have caused from seeking moral guidance,” Ms. Hill said.

More than half the states in America list clergy as mandatory reporters of child abuse. However, the majority have exemptions for confession. Washington joins New Hampshire and West Virginia in not offering an exemption for confession.

The sponsor of the law, a Democratic state senator, Noel Frame, defended the requirement to break the seal of confession, telling reporters at the bill signing, “You never put somebody’s conscience above the protection of a child.”

Responding to concerns that the law will lead to priests being excommunicated for breaking the seal of confession, Ms. Frame told NPR, “There’s nothing to say they cannot change their rules.”

The lawsuit filed by the bishops argues that the Catholic Church has implemented “policies that go further in the protection of children than the current requirements of Washington law on reporting child abuse and neglect.” 

It explains that “church personnel” are required to report “suspected abuse or neglect” when a priest hears of it through “non-sacramental counsel,” meaning outside of confession. 

While the law was being debated by the legislature, the Washington State Catholic Conference argued that the “most immediate” signs of child abuse are more likely to be discovered “outside of the confessional,” while confessions of child abuse could come “years later.”

The lawsuit says Washington is “targeting the Roman Catholic Church in a brazen act of religious discrimination.”

“Without any basis in law or fact, Washington now puts Roman Catholic priests to an impossible choice: violate 2,000 years of Church teaching and incur automatic excommunication or refuse to comply with Washington law and be subject to imprisonment, fine, and civil liability,” the complaint says.

“Putting clergy to the choice between temporal criminal punishment and eternal damnation, interfering with the internal governance and discipline of the Catholic Church, and targeting religion for the abrogation of all privileges, is a patent violation of both the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

It also alleges the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the  Fourteenth Amendment.

Priests who do not comply with the law could receive fines of up to $5,000 and jail sentences of up to 364 days.

The assistant attorney general for civil rights, Harmeet Dhillon, said earlier this month that the Department of Justice had opened a civil rights investigation into the law.