Washington State permanently withdrew the law requiring clergy to violate the sacred “seal of confession” by reporting sexual abuse that was disclosed in a confession booth, according to a court order issued on Friday, Oct. 10.

The decision comes after the law was set to take effect on July 27, but was halted just days before, after Washington’s Catholic bishops and other groups sued the state in federal court.

In Etienne v. Ferguson, the Archdiocese of Seattle and the dioceses of Spokane and Yakima argued that the new law violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom by compelling priests to break the seal of confession that the Catholics view as sacred.

The U.S. Department of Justice sued the State of Washington, calling the law “anti-Catholic.”

The latest ruling

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