A law signed by Washington State Gov. Bob Ferguson last week that requires members of the clergy to report confessions of child abuse or neglect is under scrutiny, as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a civil rights investigation into whether the law violates the First Amendment.
The Evergreen State’s new law adds "members of the clergy" to a list of professionals who are required to report information obtained through confessionals that relate to child abuse or neglect, to law enforcement or other state authorities.
The law provides no exception for the absolute seal of confidentiality, which applies to Catholic Priests, according to the DOJ.
The DOJ also said the state’s new law singles out "members of the clergy" as the only "supervisors" who are unable to rely on applicable legal privileges such as religious confessions, as a reason to not report the claims as mandated.
The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division is investigating whether Washington state’s law violates religious protections provided under the First Amendment.
The First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
"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," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said. "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."
Ferguson, who signed the bill into law on May 2, did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the matter.
FOX 13 in Seattle reported that the bill will go into effect on July 26.
The station also reported that a federal report shows that Washington is one of just five states that does not explicitly or implicitly require clergy to report suspected child abuse or neglect. It added that most states exempt information learned through confession from mandatory reporting, though Washington joins just a handful of states, including West Virginia and New Hampshire, which do not provide such exemptions.
EXCLUSIVE: State Armor Action is releasing a new tool that will allow people to track anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) legislation across the country.
"China's communist government targets American state governments in order to undermine our homeland security. Protecting the United States from the Chinese Communist Party requires working on the front lines in statehouses across the country to combat CCP aggression and oppression," Michael Lucci, the founder and CEO of State Armor Action, told Fox News Digital.
The comment comes as Lucci’s organization, which aims to help U.S. states confront emerging global security threats, releases a new tracker that allows users to see all the legislation regarding China currently making its way through state legislatures.
According to the tracker, their organization is currently keeping tabs on 461 bills across the country aimed at addressing the threat posed by the CCP.
The tracker also keeps tabs on where those bills stand, with a graphic showing that 11 of the bills have been killed, 43 have been adopted, 25 have passed both chambers, 43 have crossed over from one chamber to another, and 339 have been introduced.
"State Armor Action's legislation tracker will serve as a crucial tool in the fight against Communist China and its nefarious partners," Lucci said. "The tracker will help educate policy leaders and inform the American public about the legislation that will stop the CCP across the country, and it will help spread legislative concepts between states."
The tracker contains graphics that track the party in control of each state government where bills have been introduced or enacted, while also displaying a U.S. map showing which states have the highest concentration of anti-CCP bills.
While the threat posed by China may traditionally be seen as in the sphere of the federal government’s control, Alex Gray, deputy assistant to the president and chief of staff of the White House National Security Council, told Fox News Digital that it is critical that states also set themselves up to combat China.
"The Chinese Communist Party has its sights set on the states," Gray said. "Now more than ever, we need state leaders to step up and harden themselves against Communist China. State Armor Action’s new China legislation tracker will help inform and educate leaders on legislation across the country, allow them to monitor progress, and make it easier to join the fight against the CCP’s encroachment in our homeland. State and local leaders can use the tracker to model their legislation based on other successful counter-CCP bills around the country. I urge all leaders to use this tool and help counter China’s malign influence."
City council members in Maryland introduced a bill Monday to expand access to menstrual products in all city-run bathrooms, including those designated for men.
Baltimore Councilman Paris Gray, who is the lead sponsor of the bill, introduced the legislation during the city council’s bi-monthly meeting.
Gray said the bill is not just a proposal, but it reflects the city’s commitment to menstrual equity and the values Baltimore holds dear, including dignity, accessibility and public health.
"Access to menstrual products should be as fundamental as access to soap or toilet paper," Gray said. "It is an essential part of personal hygiene, and yet, for far too many people, these products remain out of reach. Menstrual products are not a luxury. They are a necessity, and the absence of access can create undue stress and hardship."
Gray said the bill, if approved, will require all city-owned and leased buildings with public restrooms to provide menstrual products, free of charge.
"This includes restrooms and all kinds of facilities, whether they are designated for men, women, family use or single occupancy," he said.
But the bill, Gray noted, is nothing new. Instead, the bill codifies what Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration and Department of General Services have already done by taking steps to ensure menstrual products are available in many public facilities across the city.
Gray also said Baltimore is not joining a national movement for menstrual equality, but instead, is leading the charge across the country.
"Cities and municipalities are recognizing the point-importance of free access to menstrual products and Baltimore's proudly taking this place at the forefront of this critical effort," he said.
Gray did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the matter.
In February, the Long Beach Unified School District in California took similar measures when it notified parents in an email that all schools containing grades 3 through 12 would have menstrual products in girls bathrooms, all-gender bathrooms, and in at least one boys bathroom.
The email told parents and caregivers the system is "committed to reducing barriers to learning and fostering a supportive environment for all students."
The availability of period products in girls bathrooms and at least one boys bathroom is to "ensure that any student who menstruates-including transgender boys and nonbinary students-can access these necessary products with dignity and discretion," per the email.
In California, the "Menstrual Equality for All Act" was passed in October 2023, and it mandated that changes must be enacted at or before the start of the 2024-25 school year.
The following text was added to the state's education code when the bill was passed:
"On or before the start of the 2024–25 school year, a public school, including a school operated by a school district, county office of education, or charter school, maintaining any combination of classes from grades 3 to 12, inclusive, shall stock the school’s restrooms at all times with an adequate supply of menstrual products, available and accessible, free of cost, in all women’s restrooms and all-gender restrooms, and in at least one men’s restroom."
Menstrual products were defined in the bill as pads and tampons specifically "for use in connection with the menstrual cycle."
The bill also said it is the state legislature's intent "to promote period equity through adequate access to menstrual products in schools also serving grades 3 to 5, inclusive."
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.
A Colorado Democrat likened parent groups to "the KKK" during an hours-long committee hearing for a controversial bill that could see parents accused of "coercive control" in custody fights for using a trans child's "deadname."
"I really am curious about how much stakeholdering went on both sides of the issue, and not just one side," Republican state Rep. Jarvis Caldwell said during the hearing, which began Monday night and ran into early Tuesday. "I'm curious with if the businesses in the community were included in these and if parent groups that are not part of the LGBT community if they were involved."
Later during the House Judiciary hearing, Democrat state Rep. Yara Zokaie said the committee that night had "heard a lot about stakeholding and who was left out of stakeholding" and that "this process is important for us to understand the implications of the bills that we are passing."
"But a well-stakeholdered bill does not need to be discussed with hate groups," Zokaie said. "And we don't ask someone passing civil rights legislation to go ask the KKK their opinion," she added as several in the committee room applauded.
The bill in question, HB25-1312, An Act Concerning Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals, requires courts to consider "deadnaming, misgendering, or threatening to publish material related to an individual's gender-affirming health-care services as types of coercive control" when making child custody decisions. It passed in a 7-4 vote out of the committee, clearing the first major hurdle to becoming law. It now goes to the Assembly for a second reading.
If the bill passes, it would make Colorado the first state to pass such legislation.
In California, similar legislation was passed in 2023 requiring courts to consider a parent's affirmation of a child's chosen gender identity in custody battles. However, liberal Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill.
The Colorado bill, which would create the Kelly Loving Act, named after a transgender man who was killed in the 2022 Colorado nightclub shooting by a nonbinary gunman, also prohibits Colorado courts from enforcing laws from other states that remove children from parents who allow transgender treatments for minors.
If a child in school wants to go by a different name other than their legal one, the bill says educators must be "inclusive of all reasons that a student might adopt a chosen name."
"If the individual provides a chosen name that is different from the individual's legal name, the chosen name must be used on all subsequent forms administered by the public entity," the bill text summary says.
After the hearing, Caldwell told Fox News Digital in a statement that Zokaie's reference to certain stakeholders was "deeply concerning" and "reckless."
"Particularly when it involves labeling parents – the people who care the most about the future of their children – as hate groups," he said. "Parents who stand up for their children's education and rights should be respected, not vilified."
Zokaie also said during the hearing, "There was a lot of discussion of folks losing their children, and I just want us to note that these are parameters for a judge to consider."
"The word 'consider' is used repeatedly. There are no mandates in this bill," she said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Zokaie for comment but did not receive a response by publication deadline.
A Republican lawmaker from Colorado expressed shock at being told by Democratic colleagues that he had to remove a sticker supporting the Second Amendment from his laptop while in the state's House chamber.
"I had to cover up this, they couldn't stand my sticker," Colorado Republican state Rep. Ken DeGraaf said during remarks on the state's House floor, pointing to paper covering up a sticker in support of the Second Amendment on a laptop he carried with him to the chamber.
"It said ‘shall not be infringed’ and signed ‘2-A’ and that was considered offensive, which I understand would be offensive to this bill," he continued.
The remarks come as Colorado lawmakers debate a controversial gun control bill that would limit the sale of some semiautomatic firearms that rely on detachable magazines, such as the popular AR-15 platform.
The legislation, Colorado Senate Bill 25-003, would be one of the strictest gun control measures in the country, something the state's Democratic lawmakers argue is necessary to keep citizens safe.
"Preventing gun violence is one of the most effective ways that we can make our communities safer and save lives. Semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines are uniquely lethal and dangerous," state Rep. Meg Froelich, a Democatric sponsor of the bill, told KKTV. "This bill is a commonsense solution to ensure that people receive effective training and meet the requirements under state and federal firearm laws before purchasing the most lethal weapons on the market. From background checks and waiting periods to limits on high-capacity magazines, Colorado Democrats have enacted multiple laws to protect Coloradans from future gun violence."
The bill has passed the state's Senate and a second reading in the House, according to the KTTV report, which noted that lawmakers largely expect the legislation to be ready for a final vote in the coming week.
The bill has faced stiff resistance from Republicans such as DeGraaf, who argue the legislation would run afoul of the U.S. Constitution.
DeGraaf accused his Democratic colleagues of being offended by the Constitution during his remarks on the House floor, pointing to the forced removal as an example.
As DeGraaf lamented the covering of the sticker, he was informed that the only reason for the request was because such displays are banned in the "well" of the chamber, which sits between the chamber's front desk and the first row of member seats.
"So OK, no displays of the Constitution in the well, got it," DeGraaf quipped back.
Arkansas is the first state in the nation that forced a Chinese-connected company to divest farmland, and now says it is taking additional action against the CCP.
Sanders is introducing new legislation that adds further measures to stop China state-owned businesses from operating in her state and shut down programs sponsored by China.
The measures include banning CCP-linked companies from buying or leasing property, blocking ownership near critical infrastructure sites, scraping Sister City partnerships and cutting funding for universities and colleges that have Chinese-funded programs.
"We've seen a number of cases where China is trying to infiltrate things that matter to our critical infrastructure, buying up land around our military bases, our substations. These are things that we're taking strong action against here in Arkansas, expanding existing legislation so that we can continue to hold their feet to the fire and push them out," says Sanders.
In 2023, the state ordered Syngenta Seeds, whose parent company is a Chinese conglomerate, to divest farmland used for seed production.
The company said that "the suggestion that China is using Syngenta to purchase land or conduct operations for any purpose other than supporting the company's commercial business in North America is simply false." But the state fined the company $280,000 for not initially disclosing its foreign ownership by the deadline.
"Syngenta is foreign-owned — ultimately by the Chinese Communist Party," said Arkansas Attorney General Tim Miller in announcing the penalty.
"This serves as a warning to all other Chinese state-owned companies operating in Arkansas."
"Agriculture is the number one industry here in the state of Arkansas and so protecting our agricultural security and protecting the components that make it so strong, are one of the things that are really important," says Sanders.
Two other firms are being investigated for possible ties to China, but in December a Federal Judge issued a preliminary injunction to halt the probe of one of them.
At least 22 states have enacted some form of restrictions on Chinese-owned companies.
"The CCP has aggressive intent and has become more aggressive and threatening, both at home as well as abroad, and we need to be aware of these threats," says Congressman John Moolenaar, (R) Michigan, Chairman of House Select Committee on the CCP. He says more states should follow Sanders' lead.
"She is taking a leadership role and protecting farmland and green spaces in Arkansas and making sure the CCP doesn't gain a foothold in Arkansas. We want to see more states taking this kind of action," he says.
For several years, officials have been warning about China's entry into the U.S., through businesses and other organizations that they say pose a national security threat.
Michael Pillsbury, a former top U.S. government official on China matters and Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, has been sounding the alarm. He authored "The One Hundred Year Marathon, China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower" a decade ago and says not much has changed since then.
"What Governor Sanders is launching is pretty important," he says, "part of building the long-term foundation to protect ourselves against the CCP, but it is not the end of the story unless she is successful in persuading Homeland Security and the FBI to make this a federal issue."
"The state of Arkansas doesn't have a CIA or FBI to do this. The intelligence collection that triggers the alarm is what the federal government has to do."
Experts say it can be difficult to determine if a company is really owned by a Chinese firm, which is part of the CCP's strategy.
"There really is no such thing as a private company in China," says Rep. Moolenaar. "All the companies are affiliated in some way and directed in some way by the Chinese Communist Party. And secondly, it is important to note that they have something called military fusion, where technologies, even in the civil area, are used for military purposes."
He says Chinese-funded programs that operate under the guise of educational programs also serve to further the CCP's interests, which is one target of Sanders' push. Moolenaar points to a recent case in his state of Michigan that raised alarms.
"The Chinese Communist Party will leverage people," he says. "Five Chinese national students were caught spying at Camp Grayling. Camp Grayling is a military facility, where according to public reports, we train military leaders, including Taiwanese military leaders. So when you consider the threat of the leverage of the Chinese Communist Party, we need to be vigilant and protect American universities and American taxpayer dollars."
The five Chinese students were charged last fall with lying to the FBI after they claimed to be observing meteor showers at midnight at the base, but instead were found to have taken photos of the installation. The FBI said all five graduated last spring from the University of Michigan, and were part of a joint program between the university and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China.
This is exactly the type of suspicious scenario Sanders is trying to address.
"We know that so often China is looking for any way possible into and developing a relationship for the purpose of exploiting it, and for the purpose of taking that information back and using it against us," she says. "We want to make sure that we are protecting against that."
China's embassy in Washington has accused the U.S. of "politicizing and weaponizing economic and trade issues." Embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu says U.S. officials "deliberately obstruct normal economic and trade exchange for (a) political agenda."
But critics charge that is exactly what the CCP is doing under the guise of commerce and friendship.
"We need to be proactive," warns Rep. Moolenaar. "We need to not so much look for a smoking gun, we need to look for a loaded gun that is actually a threat to America."
California lawmakers, on Monday, postponed a special legislation session scheduled for Tuesday to "Trump-proof" the Gold State ahead of President-elect Trump’s inauguration, due to wildfires devastating the Los Angeles region.
A member of the California Assembly budget office told Fox News Digital the hearing was postponed because of the fires, adding that the chairman of the committee, Assembly Member Jesse Gabriel, is unable to attend the session because he represents areas devastated by the wild infernos.
When asked when the session would be rescheduled before Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20, the budget office said the new date is still "up in the air."
While the session has been postponed, lawmakers, on Friday, adjusted the legislation.
KCRA in Sacramento reported that the lawmakers added a proposal for a new website to track anticipated lawsuits between the state and the Trump administration, additional rules surrounding the use of an additional $25 million for the California Department of Justice to fight the legal battles, and a proposal for $25 million in grants for legal services and immigration support. The proposals were added to the special session bills, ABX1-1 and ABX1-2.
The news comes just days after a reporter with KCRA pressed the Democratic speaker of the California Assembly, Robert Rivas, if it were the right time to have a legislative session on allocating money to fight Trump in a way that lawmakers could already do without having a special session.
Rivas deflected the question, saying he was there to address the wildfires.
"This is a historic, historic wildfire," he told the reporter. "This is, this is a historic event. These wildfires, as I mentioned, are going to be, quite possibly, some of the worst wildfires and disasters in the state and national history."
But the reporter pressed on, saying, "while this wildfire is happening, and while people are trying to understand what’s going on and are worried about disaster relief, worried about the ability to get homeowners insurance, your chamber gaveled into a special legislative session to prepare for Donald Trump in a way that you are already able to do without a special legislative session. So again, is now the right time for that?"
Again, Rivas focused on wildfire recovery and did not directly answer the reporter’s question.
Rivas’ office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for additional information about the postponement of the special session.
Shortly after Trump's electoral victory, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a special legislative session to bolster the state's legal fund in the case of attacks from the Trump administration. Trump hit back at Newsom after the announcement, saying on his Truth Social account, "He is using the term 'Trump-Proof' as a way of stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to 'Make California Great Again,' but I just overwhelmingly won the Election."
Between 2017 and 2021, California's Department of Justice led 122 lawsuits against Trump administration policies, spending $42 million on litigation. Newsom's office said in one case, the federal government was ordered to reimburse California nearly $60 million in public safety grants.
While California filed over 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration, Trump lobbed only four major lawsuits against the state. In 2018, Trump's DOJ filed a lawsuit over three California sanctuary state laws that restricted cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. That same year, Trump sued California for its state-level net neutrality law.
Fox News Digital’s Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.
A rule banning transgender people in Montana from changing the sex designation on their birth certificates and driver’s licenses will be temporarily blocked following a state judge’s ruling.
District Judge Mike Menahan on Monday ruled that the ban would be blocked while the case proceeds through the courts.
Under state law, transgender people born in Montana are blocked from changing the sex designation on their birth certificate, and transgender residents are prevented from changing the sex on their driver’s licenses without an amended birth certificate.
Two transgender women filed the case in April on behalf of themselves and others who have been unable to obtain documents "that accurately reflect their sex," the complaint said.
The state had argued that sex is binary, either male or female, and that being transgender is not a protected class of people who could have their constitutional rights to privacy violated.
Menahan said it was not necessary at this point in the litigation to determine whether transgender Montanans constitute a special class on the basis of their transgender status, and disagreed with the state’s argument that discrimination on the basis of transgender status is not discrimination on the basis of sex.
"If the challenged state actions discriminate against transgender individuals on the basis of their transgender status, they also necessarily discriminate on the basis of sex," he wrote.
The ruling comes days after the Montana supreme court temporarily blocked a state law banning transgender surgeries for minors, saying the law likely violates Montana’s constitutional right to privacy.
