That's the question Utahns should be asking their legislators about Senate Bill 111, "Free Exercise of Religion Without Government Interference."

The title alone is guaranteed to win the bill approval in Utah's Mormon-dominated Legislature. But let's stop and consider its implications.

Sen. Chris Buttars says he is sponsoring it because some kid in junior high was sent home for wearing a T-shirt that displayed the acronym CTR, shorthand for "Choose the Right," a popular Latter-day Saint slogan.

Buttars argues that religious expression is unnecessarily restricted in public schools and other government institutions, and that, "Slowly the noose has become tighter and tighter."

The core of his bill has two provisions.

The first says that "a government entity shall not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion even if the burden results from a law, rule, or ordinance of general applicability."

The second says, "A government entity may substantially burden a person's exercise of religion only if it demonstrates, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the application of the burden to the person is substantially related to an important governmental interest."

Now let's consider the student with the CTR T-shirt. Many junior high schools have a dress code or uniform standard that prohibits kids from wearing T-shirts with any message on them, religious or otherwise. The schools do this because certain advertising symbols or slogans can be gang-related. They also can be symbols of cliques or may divide the haves from the have-nots.

The schools figure, rightly, that they can reduce social tensions if they just prohibit T-shirts. It doesn't have anything to do with crushing religious expression.

Now suppose Buttars' bill becomes law. The CTR T-shirt would be allowed. But so, presumably, would slogans like "Choose the Left" or "There Is No God" or "There Is No God But Allah" or "Satan Rules." Do we really want to introduce more religious tensions into schools? The Tribune Editorial Board believes that would be a bad idea.

To keep their dress codes, the schools would have to prove, in court, that the no-T-shirt rule advanced an important government interest.

That's a good way to add more red tape to a school system that already is strangled by it.