Priests who fail to report abuse learned in confession could face up to 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine. The lawsuit, filed in federal district court, claims the state’s law violates the First and ...

An Orthodox priest hears confession during a Mass celebrated Oct. 26, 2007, in Bucharest, Romania. In the United States, a group of Orthodox churches filed a federal lawsuit over a new law in ...

A group of Orthodox churches filed a federal lawsuit over a new law in Washington state requiring clergy to report child abuse or neglect without exceptions for clergy-penitent privilege that is also ...

The conservative legal group Alliance for Defending Freedom, which filed on the churches’ behalf, argued in a press release that the state is singling out priests by punishing them for respecting the ...