Arizona Bill Targets Clergy Who Refuse To Break The Seal Of Confession

Arizona Bill Targets Clergy Who Refuse To Break The Seal Of Confession

by | Jan 12, 2026 | News

By Staff Reporter |

A proposed bill in the Arizona legislature would require members of the clergy to report any crimes admitted to them in confession.

The bill by Minority House Whip Stacey Travers, HB 2039, would expand the duty to report to religious leaders, specifically naming clergymen, priests, and Christian Science practitioners. Travers attempted to run the bill, without success, for every legislative session since coming into office in 2023. 

Religious leaders would be held liable in a civil action should they fail to report not only ongoing but any potential future abuse of minors that has yet to occur. This failure to report would kick in if “reasonable suspicion” exists that “dependency, physical injury, abuse, child abuse, or abandonment is ongoing or that dependency, physical injury, abuse, child abuse, or abandonment may occur in the future.”

The bill would also remove the requirement for religious leaders to obtain consent from the individual making their confession before reporting to authorities.

“A member of the clergy, a Christian Science practitioner or a priest who has knowledge or a reasonable suspicion that a person is committing or may commit child abuse or neglect shall immediately report or cause reports to be made of this information to a peace officer, to the Department of Child Safety or to a tribal law enforcement or social services agency for any Indian minor who resides on an Indian reservation, except if the report concerns a person who does not have care, custody or control of the minor, the report shall be made to a peace officer only. This subsection does not apply to a confidential or penitential communication unless the member of the clergy, a Christian Science practitioner or a priest determines that the abuse or neglect is still occurring or will occur in the future.”

Punishments would vary depending on the proposed violations. 

Those who fail to report a reportable offense (sexual offenses outlined within 13-1401 through 13-1430 of Arizona Code; obscenity; furnishing harmful items; surreptitious photographing, videotaping, filming, or digitally recording or viewing a minor; child sex trafficking; incest; or unlawful mutilation) would be charged with a class six felony. 

All other violations of the bill would qualify as a misdemeanor. 

Congressman Andy Biggs, a Mormon, said he was not shocked that a Democratic lawmaker was behind the bill. 

“A terrible attack on Catholics in Arizona by, of course, a Democrat,” said Biggs. “This bill should never see the light of day.” 

When Travers first introduced the proposed bill in 2023, she said it was Mormons (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or LDS) who asked her to file it following the case of a Bisbee man, Paul Adams, who continued to rape his daughters for years after confessing his crimes to a Mormon bishop. Adams’ suicide brought his crimes to light. 

“I picked up the mantle because I had LDS constituents come to me,” said Travers in an interview with Capitol Media Services.

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Election Bills Before House Committee Address Early Ballots, Write-In Candidates, And More

Election Bills Before House Committee Address Early Ballots, Write-In Candidates, And More

by | Jan 27, 2021 | News

The House Committee on Government & Elections will consider a number of bills Wednesday morning aimed at improving election integrity and voter confidence.

On the agenda are several bills introduced by Rep. John Kavanagh, the committee chairman. One is HB2361 which would allow the tallying of early ballots as soon as the ballot envelope and affidavit is processed.

Currently county election officials cannot start to tally early ballots until 14 days before election day. This posed several challenges during the 2020 General Election due to the vast majority of voters who utilized early ballots in place of in-person voting.

Another bill, HB2181, increases the time period that a write-in candidate must file nomination papers from 40 days before an election to 76 days before, bringing it in line with other write-in related deadlines. And the bill would require a write-in candidate to be a qualified elector as well as a resident of the city, county, district, or town they want to represent for 120 days before the election.

The house committee will also consider HB2363, which would allow cities and towns to train employees to work on elections with the approval of the Arizona Secretary of State (SOS). Currently such training and certification of election officers must be conducted by the SOS, which must be reimbursed by the municipality for the cost of the training.

HB2307 would require an election official to provide an explanation to any in-person voter whose ballot triggers an overvote warning when inserted into an electronic ballot box. Similar to SB1025 introduced by Sen. Kelly Townsend, it would ensure voters understand that overriding the warning means none of the votes cast in an overvoted section of the ballot will be counted.

The committee is also expected to consider whether to replace Rep. Gail Griffin’s hand count bill HB2039 with the language of Sen. J.D. Mesnard’s SB1010. Mesnard’s bill would require counties to conduct hand counts based on precincts, even if a voting center system is in place.

SB1010 also increases the number of post-election hand counts a county must conduct of in-person ballots from two percent of all precincts to five percent or the number of precincts required to achieve a statistical significance consisting of a 99 percent confidence level with a margin of error of 1 percent, whichever is greater.

The bill also addresses who can request a hand recount in a contest that is not subject to an automatic recount.