Information Center

Amicus Briefs in Church Plan Litigation

There are currently eleven cases now pending before the federal courts that will determine whether a pension plan established by a religiously-affiliated nonprofit organization, which is not itself a church, is a “church plan” that is exempt from the federal law protecting private sector retirement benefits (ERISA). The results of these lawsuits will determine whether hundreds of thousands of nurses, teachers, social workers, and orderlies will be able to count on getting the pensions they have earned. A church plan litigation chart can be found here. The Pension Rights Center has filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting the plaintiffs’ positions that their pension plans are not ‘church plans’ in three of these cases.

• Read the Center’s amicus brief in Medina v Catholic Health Initiatives filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on June 29, 2016.
• Read the Center’s amicus brief in Rollins v. Dignity Health filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Sept. 14, 2015.
• Read the Center’s amicus brief in Stapleton v. Advocate Health filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on May 13. (5/13/2015)
• Read the Center’s brief in Kaplan v. Saint Peter’s Healthcare System filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on May 15. (5/15/2015)
• Read the Center’s amicus brief in Marilyn Overall v. Ascension Health, et al, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on October 3. Here is PRC’s Motion for Leave to File as Amicus Curiae.(10/3/2014)