Anthony Kennedy和Post-Scalia Scotus奠定了Erisa法律

After the recent death of conservative stalwart Antonin Scalia, the U.S. Supreme Court has an even ideological split: four judges whose voting record has tracked liberal and four conservatives. With the Republican-dominated Senate loath to approve a nominee from President Barack Obama — especially in an election year — a full roster of nine justices may have to wait.

与此同时，频繁的挥杆选民 - 虽然他拒绝了标签 - 安东尼肯尼迪可以提示裁决的平衡。“5-3次自由主义投票的可能性使这一法院有一种跳投，”华盛顿律师事务所的律师事务所棕色的最高法院和上诉小组联合领导者。

并且已经，他在将先例的案件中提供了书面意见，以便在应用中1974年员工退休金安全法案（Erisa）On Tuesday, the court voted 6–2 inGOBEILLE.v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., in which the court held that ERISA takes precedence over state health care databases — the one in question in this case being Vermont’s — on health care costs and distribution. More broadly though, while this case specifically dealt with a very narrow state law, theGOBEILLE.ruling could apply to management of other state-level benefit plans such as defined-benefit and defined-contribution pension plans.

“Specifically, if these laws are challenged, depending on exactly how they are written, they may be found to be preempted by ERISA, too,” says Allison Klausner, principal, Knowledge Resource Center and director of government relations at Buck Consultants in New York, a human resource consulting firm part of Xerox Corp.

The ideology portion of Kennedy’s Segal-Cover score, a rough measurement using newspaper editorials on SCOTUS nominees, clocks in at 0.365, with 0 being the most conservative and 1 the most liberal. Liberal legend Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s score is 0.68. George W. Bush appointee and Chief Justice John Roberts measured 0.12 in the lead-up to his confirmation. And the late Scalia? 0.0. “If Scalia had been around, he would have likely voted for ERISA preemption.”

由前总统罗纳德·里根，肯尼迪，79，支持堕胎权利和同性婚姻;他2015年6月关于地标的意见Obergefell v. Hodgescase has become a popular reading choice at wedding ceremonies. He has also favored the Clean Air Act, though in 2009 he wrote the majority opinion ruling in favor of a mining company that wanted to extract gold using a pollution-heavy method.

然而，涉及公司和工会法律，肯尼迪对这些问题的投票记录往往追踪保守派。他写了大多数意见Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the landmark 2010 decision that paved the way for super PACs,political action committees that can raise unlimited sums。在2003年的情况下Nevada Dept of Human Resources v. Hibbs, Kennedy, along with Scalia and Clarence Thomas, dissented in a decision that applied the federal Family and Medical Leave Act over state rules. That same term Kennedy wrote a partial dissent inNorfolk & Western Railway Co. v. Ayers, in which he argued that railroad workers who had contracted asbestos poisoning on the job should not be entitled to monetary compensation for pain and suffering.

Kennedy’s line of questioning duringGOBEILLE., as well as in弗里德里奇v. California Teachers Association,paralleled that of the more conservative faction of the court, according to SCOTUSblog, though it was perhaps less strident.弗里德里奇concerns the validity under the First Amendment of requiring that non–union member teachers pay union dues for collective bargaining benefits. The ruling could determine public unions’ collective bargaining powers, which may mean a less cohesive voice when it comes topension negotiations。Should the court vote 4-4 on that case — or any case, for that matter — the lower court’s ruling, which favored the California teachers’ union, would hold. But the Supreme Court could ask that pending cases be reheard before a full nine justices.

与此同时，美国最高法院决定留出国家养老金层面。星期一，法院拒绝听取来自代表新泽西州国家士兵的三个工会的上诉，在联邦合同保护国家养老金支付。这片叶子在新泽西州最高法院的裁决下，这是六月统治的Governor Chris Christiedid not have to make scheduled payments into the state pension system, which has more than $80 billion in unfunded liabilities.

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