What if a state legislature enacted, and a state Supreme Court upheld, a law forcing family businesses operated by Orthodox Jews to remain open on the Sabbath?

Surely, reasonable people -- including those who don't share Jewish views on the Sabbath -- would recognize this as a crass and unconstitutional act.

So, too, should they regard the law upheld this week by a 6-1 decision of the California Supreme Court that orders various institutions of the Roman Catholic Church to purchase insurance that will provide artificial birth control to church employees.

In their petition to the California Supreme Court in this case, lawyers for Catholic Charities of Sacramento, a branch of the local Catholic diocese, convincingly demonstrated that a law compelling state employers to provide insurance coverage for prescription birth control (if they provide their employees with any prescription drug coverage at all) was specifically aimed at forcing Catholic institutions to act in contradiction to Catholic teaching, which holds that artificial birth control is wrong.

When the California legislature considered this bill in 1999, PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted a study of health insurance practices in the state. It found that "coverage of reversible forms of contraception is available to approximately 90 percent of insured Californians." A law mandating this coverage largely "would codify existing practices."

But Catholic institutions stood conspicuously outside the birth-control fold, and sponsors of the bill found this intolerable. As introduced, their legislation contained no exemption for church institutions. A report by staff of the Assembly Committee on Health said: "(T)he sponsors of this bill strongly object to a religious exemption."

California Sen. Jackie Speier, a Catholic who sponsored the legislation, attacked her church's teaching on birth control on the senate floor. "(L)et me point out that 59 percent of all Catholic women of childbearing age practice contraception," she said. "Eighty-eight percent of Catholics believe in a New York Times poll that someone who practices artificial birth control can still be a good Catholic. I agree with that. I think it's time to do the right thing."

The soul of tyranny dwells in this illogic. If 59 percent of Catholics said two plus two is five, would that justify California mandating that the Catholic Church concede two plus two is five? Continued...