The March 14 Statement on Religious Freedom and the HHS Mandate, issued by the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, calls the Obama contraception mandate "unjust and illegal."

It's a powerful statement, worth reading in its entirety, but here's a key part of the statement:

The exemption is not merely a government foray into internal Church governance, where government has no legal competence or authority-disturbing though that may be. This error in theory has grave consequences in principle and practice. Those deemed by HHS not to be "religious employers" will be forced by government to violate their own teachings within their very own institutions. This is not only an injustice in itself, but it also undermines the effective proclamation of those teachings to the faithful and to the world.

This statement by the Catholic bishops comes nine days after release of a report by nine state attorneys general on 21 violations of law by the Obama administration that the AGs are currently fighting.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said President Obama and his deputies are "the greatest set of lawbreakers that have run the federal government in our lifetimes."

The United States has suffered through leaders who violate laws here and there, and some more than others, but who generally respected the constitutional rule of law, or at least paid lip service to it.

So many of the methods and acts of governing employed by President Obama and his administration violate the constitutional rule of law that we must conclude the intent of his offences -- at law called mens rea -- is to govern in large part by violating our paramount law when that law is inconvenient to his agenda. His pronouncements, such as he can't wait for Congress to act so he will, show that his very methods of governing are based in a brazen contempt for the Constitution.

This is not criminal. It is, however, wholly unacceptable for a President of the United States.

America will not -- cannot -- stand for such contempt for our fundamental and paramount law. The recent statements by the Catholic bishops and state attorneys general show that major institutions in America and their leaders are beginning to acknowledge that our  lawbreaking POTUS lacks the legal and moral legitimacy to remain in office.

We will see over the next few months which leaders and which institutions will stand up to the biggest and most pervasive lawbreaker in American history. Those who are with the people and the rule of law are with us; those who are not are against us.