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President Trump's Department of Justice is investigating Washington state over a new child abuse law that it calls anti-Catholic. That law adds clergy to the list of people who must report child abuse. The list already includes people like teachers, nurses and cops. It's pretty common in many states for clergy to be included, but Washington's new law does something else that is less common. It requires clergy to report information they learn in confession. Member station KUOW's Jeanie Lindsay reports.
JEANIE LINDSAY, BYLINE: Earlier this month, Washington state's Democratic governor, Bob Ferguson, who is Catholic, signed the new bill into law.
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BOB FERGUSON: For me, this is very clear, you know, very clear legislation and important legislation.
LINDSAY: But several Catholic Church leaders across the country have condemned the new law, raising concerns about what they see as a violation of the sacrament of confession and their fellow Catholics' constitutional rights to freely exercise their religion. The law doesn't specify confession. It just says that privileged communication is not exempt. But Catholic leaders say that it still puts priests in an impossible situation.
JEAN HILL: And a priest who does tell somebody else what has been said in confession is automatically excommunicated from his lifelong vocation in the Catholic Church.
LINDSAY: That's Jean Hill, executive director for the Washington State Catholic Conference.
HILL: So our priests are not going to be able to comply.
LINDSAY: Washington isn't the only state that demands clergy report child abuse without exceptions. New Hampshire and West Virginia are among a handful of states with similar policies that have been in place for years, and those laws haven't resulted in priests being put in jail for failing to report. That's according to David LaBahn, president of the national Association of Prosecuting Attorneys. He says going after mandatory reporters who fail to report is difficult - even more so with priests.
DAVID LABAHN: Without any written document, any video, almost impossible to prove what did the victim tell the person at that point.
LINDSAY: The main benefits of child abuse reporting laws, he says, are increased awareness among mandatory reporters, and if a case ever goes to court, the reports themselves are very useful.
LABAHN: It helps us prove and helps us corroborate that the event occurred when the defense is trying to say that the victim, quote, "made this up."
LINDSAY: Child abuse prevention advocates also say the issue is much bigger than the Catholic Church. Marino Hardin is an abuse survivor who advocated for Washington's new law and was raised as a Jehovah's Witness. He says that religion requires confidential internal investigations around what they perceive as serious sin. And they've argued in court that what's said in those investigations are exempt from mandatory reporting under the same laws that exempt confession.
MARINO HARDIN: Opening this up because of the Catholic faith, to give this specific exemption for the Catholics has run-on effects, and a lot of other religions will take advantage of this to not report.
LINDSAY: It's ultimately unclear what comes next. The Justice Department said in a press release that an infringement on religious freedom, quote, "cannot stand." But the department had no comment about whether it plans to investigate other states with similar policies or if a lawsuit is coming to challenge Washington's law. The state's Catholic Conference director, Jean Hill, says she's wary of federal intervention in state law.
HILL: My hope would be that the state would amend the bill to read, as we had hoped all along, that it would say clergy or mandatory reporters, with the exception of confidential communication.
LINDSAY: But that's unlikely. The Washington legislature has adjourned for the year, and the governor has already given the law his signature of approval. The new reporting rules take effect in July.
For NPR News, I'm Jeanie Lindsay in Olympia.
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