Allahpundit used this as one of his quotes of the day, but I’d like to take one more look at Martha Coakley’s statement on religious beliefs and emergency rooms in the context of her current position. Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit has the transcript of Coakley’s statement:

Ken Pittman: Right, if you are a Catholic, and believe what the Pope teaches that any form of birth control is a sin. ah you don’t want to do that.

Martha Coakley: No we have a seperation of church and state Ken, lets be clear.

Ken Pittman: In the emergency room you still have your religious freedom.

Martha Coakley: (……uh, eh…um..) The law says that people are allowed to have that. You can have religious freedom but you probably shouldn’t work in the emergency room.

Coakley is the Attorney General of Massachusetts.  She is the highest-ranking law-enforcement officer in the state.  Coakley’s job is to enforce the law, including those protecting people against discrimination.  That means that her office should be responsible for ensuring that people who have devout religious beliefs have the job protections due them by the law, and that means in emergency rooms as well as schools, business, and other areas.

We can debate whether or not the explosion of anti-discrimination regulation is a good thing or not, but the fact is that these laws exist — championed by people like Coakley as a means of looking as though they crusade on behalf of the downtrodden.  Suddenly deciding that some victims of discrimination should suddenly buckle under to it is massively hypocritical, as well as a dereliction of duty.  Coakley just told people that she only wants to enforce some of the laws, depending on her sympathy towards the victims of discrimination.

Massachusetts voters should not only keep her out of the Senate — they should seriously question whether she belongs in her current job as well.

Update: Ben Smith has more on the law and how it relates to the question — which Coakley should be reading.