Colorado is moving forward on its plans to launch its state-designed standardized health insurance plan for individual and small group markets, but a waiver the state planned to pursue with
Updated with statement from the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.
The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday ended more than six years of challenges to the state s hospital provider fee, denying plaintiffs one last chance to challenge the fee s constitutionality.
The Court issued a denial of writ of certiorari, a legal term that means they won t hear the case.Â
The lawsuit, originally filed in 2015, was brought by the TABOR Foundation, led by former lawmaker Penn Pfiffner, and which claimed the hospital provider fee was a tax, subject to voter approval from the Taxpayer s Bill of Rights. It also challenged the law based on the Constitution s single-subject rule, which requires that bills follow the titles.Â
In July 1722, James Franklin, publisher of The New-England Courant, was jailed for publishing something offensive to the government. At that time, James wasnât a fan of his 16-year-old kid brother, Benjamin, writing for him. To get around Jamesâs annoyance, Ben would write under the pseudonym Silence Dogood.
With big brother jailed, Ben did what any little brother would: He published the July 2-9 editions himself â without Jamesâs permission. In the July 9 paper, âSilence Dogoodâ powerfully rebuked the government indirectly for violating Jamesâs rights.
âWithout Freedom of Thought, there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without Freedom of Speech,â he wrote. â[A]nd in those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech; a thing terrible to public traito