A new law in the U.S. state of Washington which requires “members of the clergy” to report cases of child abuse or neglect learned in the confessional to police is being looked at by the U.S. Justice Department to see if it violates the First Amendment of the United States.

Senate Bill 5375 passed by margins of 64-31 in the House and 28-20 in the Senate, and was signed by Democratic Governor Bob Ferguson, a Catholic, on Friday.

“Protecting our kids, first, is the most important thing. This bill protects Washingtonians from abuse and harm,” Ferguson said.

The Bill offered no exception for the absolute seal of confidentiality that applies to Catholic priests.

Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle issued a statement referring to the quote of Saint Peter in the Acts of the Apostles: “We must obey God rather than men.”

“This is our stance now in the face of this new law. Catholic clergy may not violate the seal of confession – or they will be excommunicated from the Church,” Etienne said.

“All Catholics must know and be assured that their confessions remain sacred, secure, confidential and protected by the law of the Church,” he said.

The archbishop said the Catholic Church agrees with the goal of protecting children and preventing child abuse.

“The Archdiocese of Seattle remains committed to reporting child sexual abuse, working with victim survivors towards healing and protecting all minors and vulnerable people. Our policies already require priests to be mandatory reporters, but not if this information is obtained during confession,” Etienne said.

The archbishop said the Catholic Church in the U.S. has been committed to preventing sexual abuse for many decades, reporting incidents of abuse to law enforcement and cooperating with civil authorities.

“While we remain committed to protecting minors and all vulnerable people from abuse, priests cannot comply with this law if the knowledge of abuse is obtained during the Sacrament of Reconciliation,” he said.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Etienne said with the new law, the State of Washington is specifically targeting religious conduct by inserting the government into the Catholic tradition, namely, the highly defined ritual of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

“The state is now requiring priests to violate an essential element of the rite, the confidential communication between the priest and penitent in which the absolution of sin is offered,” the archbishop said.

In a statement, the U.S. Justice Department said the Washington State Senate Bill 5375 “appears on its face to violate the First Amendment.”

“Washington State’s new law adds ‘members of the clergy’ to a list of other professionals who are required to report information received in a confessional setting relating to child abuse or neglect to law enforcement or other state authorities, with no exception for the absolute seal of confidentiality that applies to Catholic Priests,” the government statement says.

“Furthermore, the State of Washington’s new law singles out ‘members of the clergy’ as the only ‘supervisors’ who may not rely on applicable legal privileges, including religious confessions, as a defense to mandatory reporting,” the State Department continues.

It said the Civil Rights Division will investigate the apparent conflict between Washington State’s new law with the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment, which it called “a cornerstone of the United States Constitution.”

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said SB 5375 demands that Catholic priests “violate their deeply held faith in order to obey the law, a violation of the Constitution and a breach of the free exercise of religion cannot stand under our Constitutional system of government.”

“Worse, the law appears to single out clergy as not entitled to assert applicable privileges, as compared to other reporting professionals. We take this matter very seriously and look forward to Washington State’s cooperation with our investigation,” he said.

The main sponsor of the Bill, Democrat Noel Frame, defended the new law’s requirement for priests to violate the seal of the confessional.

“There are some things that it doesn’t matter what religion you are in, you never put somebody’s conscience over the protection of a child,” she told reporters.

“It really said the Church is not above the law, no one is above the law, especially when it comes to protecting children,” Frame said.