On June 16, 2025, attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom, along with co-counsel Eric Kniffin and George Ahrend, filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Orthodox Churches and priests to challenge a new Washington state law that criminalizes the confidentiality of confession. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, the suit argues the law violates the First Amendment by singling out clergy—forcing them to choose between breaking their sacred duty or facing up to 364 days in jail, a $5,000 fine, and civil liability. The law preserves confidentiality privileges for others, such as attorneys and counselors, but removes this protection from clergy, which ADF Senior Counsel John Bursch calls “rank religious discrimination.”

The Orthodox Church in America joined the suit with the support of Archbishop Benjamin of San Francisco and the West, following review by the Standing Synod of Bishops and Metropolitan Council. The Church emphasizes that the confidentiality of confession is essential to spiritual life, and violating it is a grave sin that could result in removal from the priesthood. While fully committed to protecting children and already requiring clergy to report abuse learned outside confession, the Church seeks to preserve the long-recognized clergy-penitent privilege. The lawsuit, Orthodox Church in America v. Ferguson, aims to restore this constitutionally protected religious freedom.