Amanda Marcotte has a great example of just what “public accommodation” means, and it is both illustrative of just how hypocritical the Catholic Church is being over the requirement that they follow the law in insuring their employess.

It has the additional advantage of goring my own ethnic ox, albeit that I am not at a black hat Jew:

There was an interesting story a few months ago here in Brooklyn about a privately owned company that serves the public that was engaging in discrimination against women.

Women who ride the B110 bus in Brooklyn can’t sit where they want unless they’re okay with being berated by Orthodox Jewish men, even though technically the B110 is a public bus.

The B110, which travels between Williamsburg and Borough Park is open to anyone, has a route number, and goes to city bus stops. However, the line is run by a private company under a decades-old agreement with the city, and since the bus is designed to serve the Hasidic community in the area, a board of rabbis sets the rules. They’ve decreed that women should sit in the back and men should sit in the front to avoid contact betwen members of the opposite sex.

When it was exposed that a bunch of religious fanatics were doing this, the city came down on them and said, “God or no god, you can’t discriminate against women if you’re serving the public.”

She’s right.  Hospitals and universities  serve the public provide public accomodation.

The Catholic Church has no more right to make its employees sit at the back of the bus for their insurance than do those Jews running that bus line.