October 08, 2010

In the first legal challenge to the health care overhaul, a federal judge in Michigan has upheld that the federal government has the authority to require everyone to purchase health insurance. The lawsuit was filed in Michigan by a Christian legal group and four people who claimed that Congress was exceeding their powers under the Commerce Clause. The four individual plaintiffs do not have private insurance and they object to being forced to buy it. They also said they are afraid that the financial penalty paid to the government for not having insurance would be used to pay for abortions (yeah, that sounds reasonable...Pretty much all money the government collects goes into their giant abortion coffers which are secretly located in the basement of the treasury building. And they hand out money for free abortions to anyone that asks...). 

Judge George Caram Steeh said the mandate that requires people to get health care coverage by 2014 and imposes a financial penalty if one does not get coverage is both legal and necessary. He said that Congress was trying to keep the cost of insurance down by requiring participation. He explained, "Without the minimum coverage provision, there would be an incentive for some individuals to wait to purchase health insurance until they needed care, knowing that insurance would be available at all times. As a result, the most costly individuals would be in the insurance system and the least costly would be outside it. In turn, this would aggravate current problems with cost-shifting and lead to even higher premiums." The group that filed the case said they will take it to a federal appeals court in Cincinnati.

The decision affects only the parties in the lawsuit and is not binding on any other federal judges hearing challenges to the health care law. Though, the ruling could be cited by lawyers to try to persuade other judges. Currently, a federal judge in Florida is overseeing a lawsuit filed by 20 states. A decision on whether to dismiss the case is expected by October 14. There is also a lawsuit pending in Virginia. I'm glad the first challenge against the health care law was rejected. I hope this is a sign of things to come. (Full Story)

---

Liu Xiaobo, an imprisoned Chinese democracy campaigner (as well as a political essayist and literary critic), was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. He was awarded the prize for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China." He has repeatedly been jailed since 1989 for his activism, and he currently is serving an eleven-year term on subversion charges. He is the third person to receive the prize while imprisoned (in 1991 the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi won; in 1935 Carl von Ossietzky, a German pacifist, won).

Liu first gained the attention of Chinese officials for his activism during the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations. He staged a hunger strike and then negotiated the peaceful retreat of student demonstrators as thousands of armed soldiers stood by with rifles drawn. He was then arrested. As a result of his activism, Liu has been blacklisted from academia (he was a professor) and he is not allowed to publish in China. After being released from prison, he continued to gather petitions that pressed for social and political change in China. He also continued to write a series of essays that criticized the government. He would bicycle across the city to the compounds were foreigners worked and lived, and he would fax his writings to oversea journals. Once the internet became more popular in China, he began posting commentary on overseas websites. 

He was most recently arrested in 2008. He was arrested the day before Charter '08, a reformist manifesto he helped create, began circulating on the internet. The petition demanded civil liberties, judicial independence, and an end to the Communist Party's monopoly on power. The petition gathered 10,000 signatures before censors quickly pulled it off the internet. After the incident, several blogs were shut down by the government and the first 300 signatories were interrogated. Liu was taken to an undisclosed location, where he spent a year cut off from any contact with his wife or his lawyer. At his trial, the government said that Charter '08 and nine other essays he had written exceeded his right to free expression by "openly slandering and inciting others to overthrow our country's state power."

In response to Liu being awarded the Peace Prize, Chinese state media censored the news. The Chinese media did not cover the story, and the news was censored on the internet as well. The Nobel Prize reports were also blocked online -- the reports highlighted Liu's calls for peaceful political change from various websites. [Despite efforts to block the news on the internet, on microblogs -- which are monitored by the government -- the news generated almost 6,000 comments within an hour of the announcement]. Broadcasts about Liu on CNN, which only reaches luxury compounds and hotels in China, were blacked out throughout the evening. Cell phone users also reported that they were unable to send text messages that contained Liu's name. On Friday night, dozens of foreign reporters gathered outside the apartment building where Liu and his wife live (when Liu isn't in prison, that is), but they were prevented from going in by the police. A sign was posted that said residents of the complex "politely refused" to be interviewed. It's also reported that Liu's wife has been barred from leaving her apartment. [Update: Now I hear she's been forced to leave her home by police in an effort to prevent foreign reporters from talking to her. More here.]

The Chinese Foreign Ministry called the announcement a "desecration" of the Peace Prize. And, look out, here it comes, a senior Chinese official warned that this would harm Chinese-Norwegian relations (as the Nobel Committee is Norwegian). A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said, "The Nobel Committee giving the Peace Prize to such a person runs completely contrary to the aims of the prize. Liu Xiaobo is a criminal who has been sentenced by Chinese judicial departments for violating Chinese law." [Maybe Chinese law is the problem...].

I think it's absolutely wonderful that the Nobel Committee granted the Peace Prize to Liu. This brings attention to Liu Xiaobo and his cause, and it also condemns China's authoritarian efforts to suppress opposition at the cost of basic rights. This is a very inspiring announcement. I find it so powerful when the Nobel Peace Prize is granted to activists in prison. These people have fought so hard (and made so many sacrifices) for what they believe in against a government that tries to suppress what they say; and despite efforts to silence these activists, they get intentional recognition with a Peace Prize. (Full Story)