OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington state reached an agreement on Friday that will allow an exception for clergy members within the state's mandatory reporting law .

The Washington State Attorney General's Office says clergy will remain mandatory reporters, but stipulations filed on Friday outline that state and county prosecutors will not enforce reporting requirements for information clergy learn solely through confession or its equivalent in other faiths.

Catholic leaders filed a lawsuit against the state's legislation back in May, along with the U.S. Department of Justice. Catholic leaders claimed the law violates their First Amendment right to free exercise of religion by requiring that they break the seal of confession, which is grounds for immediate excommunication in the Catholic Churc

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