A group of Orthodox churches is suing to block a new law in Washington State that requires priests to violate the seal of confession and report incidents of child abuse.

In May, Washington’s Democratic governor, Bob Ferguson, signed a bill into law that requires clergy members to report such abuse and neglect if they learn of it during confession. However, the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law states that priests who violate the seal of confession will be excommunicated.

A group of Catholic bishops sued the state seeking to block the law, which is set to take effect July 27. 

Now, the Orthodox Church in America and three other branches of Orthodox churches are filing a separate lawsuit over the law, saying it violates their First Amendment rights. They are represented by a conservative law firm, Alliance Defending Freedom.

While the Catholic priests face excommunication if they violate the seal of confession, Orthodox priests face the prospect of being kicked out of the priesthood if they comply with the law and disclose information that was learned during the sacrament of confession.

The lawsuit notes that Washington’s law “explicitly overrides the religious clergy-penitent privilege while leaving the secular attorney-client privilege (and other secular privileges) intact.”

More than half of 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. However, Washington is unique in that it keeps in place the attorney-client privilege and similar privileges for other professions.

The lawsuit says the churches “do not object to alerting authorities when they have genuine concerns about children that they learn outside of confession.” The complaint also says the churches “request only that the State give the clergy-penitent privilege the constitutional protection it is due as a fundamental religious obligation.”

A senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, John Bursch, said, “The First Amendment guarantees that governments cannot single out religious believers for worse treatment.”

“Washington is targeting priests by compelling them to break the sacred confidentiality of confession while protecting other confidential communications, like those between attorneys and their clients. That’s rank religious discrimination,” he added. 

A violation of the law carries a penalty of up to 364 days in jail and a fine of up to $5,000. 

While the churches say the law forces priests to choose between complying with the government or violating centuries of church tradition, a sponsor of the legislation, state senator Noel Frame, suggested to NPR that the churches can “change their rules.”

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