Private health insurance ruling [SC Canada] News
Private health insurance ruling [SC Canada]

Chaoulli, et al. v. Attorney General of Quebec, et al., Supreme Court of Canada, June 9, 2005 [overturning a section of a Quebec law that prevented people from buying private insurance for procedures covered by public health care]. Excerpt:

The relief sought by the appellants does not necessarily provide a complete response to the complex problem of waiting lists. However, it was not up to the appellants to find a way to remedy a problem that has persisted for a number of years and for which the solution must come from the state itself. Their only burden was to prove that their right to life and to personal inviolability had been infringed. They have succeeded in proving this. The Attorney General of Quebec, on the other hand, has not proved that the impugned measure, the prohibition on private insurance, was justified under s. 9.1 of the Quebec Charter. Given that this finding is sufficient to dispose of the appeal, it is not necessary to answer the other constitutional questions.

Read the full text of the opinion here. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UK parliament rejected J.S. Mill's proposal to give women the vote

On May 20, 1867, the British Parliament rejected by 196-73 an amendment to the 1867 Reform Act presented by John Stuart Mill that would have permitted women to vote. Review Mill's 1869 work The Subjection of Women.

Supreme Court applies Free Exercise Clause to state governments

On May 20, 1940, the United States Supreme Court held that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment applied to state governments in Cantwell v. Connecticut under the incorporation doctrine, which applied the protections of the Bill of Rights to state governments through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Learn more about the Incorporation Doctrine from the Cornell Law Schools' Legal Information Institute.