Pension Case Before the Supreme Court Could Impact Millions

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The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today in a case with the potential to impact millions of American workers employed by church-affiliated organizations.

The case is Advocate Health Care Network v. Stapleton and at the heart of the matter are pensions for employees that work for organizations with church-related affiliations — places like hospitals and schools that are exempt from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), which sets federal pension requirements and protections for employees.

Norman P. Stein, a professor at the Kline School of Law at Drexel University, says the court will be ruling on a decades-long exemption that was initially intended for literal churches, but has since morphed to include loosely-affiliated larger institutions which benefit from the church plan exemption while putting employees retirement funds at risk.