The Catholic Church asked California's high court Tuesday to be exempted from a law requiring employers who offer prescription drug plans to include coverage for contraceptives.
Arguing contraception is a sin, the church wants to be excused from having to provide contraceptives for the 50,000 people who work in Catholic charity and medical facilities in California.
"The church teaches that the practice of artificial contraception is morally unacceptable," said James Sweeney, an attorney for Catholic Charities of Sacramento, which offers social services.
Sweeney also said the 2000 law meant to combat gender discrimination in the workplace violates the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom because it forbids the church from practicing what it preaches.
The high court made no immediate decision.
Similar versions of the law have been adopted in 20 states. In the only other legal challenge, a New York county court has rejected the religious rights argument, saying the law has clear secular purposes.
In the California Supreme Court debate, Justice Carlos Moreno wondered whether church workers have a right to contraceptives regardless of Catholic doctrine. "What about the rights of the employees?" he asked.
But Justice Joyce Kennard appeared unconvinced that requiring coverage for contraceptives was necessary, demanding: "What is the compelling interest of the state law?"
Deputy Attorney General Timothy Muscat said that before the law, about half the state's employers who offered prescription benefits did not provide contraceptives.
Justice Janice Rogers Brown, whose nomination to a federal appeals judgeship by President Bush is being filibustered in the Senate, asked whether California could demand the church end its ban on women clergy.
"Could the state of California say that's not a good idea?" she asked.