Brennan reasoned that, since Massachusetts did not enforce its law against married couples and could not under Griswold v. Connecticut, the law worked irrational discrimination by denying the right to possess contraceptives by unmarried couples.

Mr. Harkin said the decision "undermines every citizen's constitutional right to be protected against irrational and unfair discrimination."

He told The Washington Post, "We certainly did not want to encourage irrational discrimination, but we had to interpret the law as it stands."

A Sapporo District Court judge, Mitsuru Sakai, said, "Their refusal to allow admission to the bathhouse was a case of irrational discrimination and exceeded the bounds of what is permissible in this society."

The court stated that "categorically refusing all foreigners constitutes irrational discrimination, exceeds social norms, and amounts to an illegal act."

The point of laws against racial bias is to outlaw irrational discrimination based on irrelevant characteristics.

The intention in the AIDS policy bill - I was legislative counsel to the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee - was to prohibit irrational discrimination based on misconceived fears and prejudice.

"As long as confidentiality cannot be guaranteed and positive test results can be used as a basis for irrational discrimination, people will, unfortunately, feel they cannot afford to be tested," Dr. Schatz said.

The idea is simple: Given "the end of racism," or at least the end of "irrational" discrimination, minority bellyaching only upsets what would otherwise be the proper social equilibrium.

Yet this is an inevitable result of any policy based on irrational discrimination.