Connolly et al., Trustees of the Operating Engineers Pension Trust v. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation et al. (475 U.S. 211)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 26, 1986 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 475 U.S. 211 · 106 S. Ct. 1018
- Decided
- February 26, 1986
- Term
- October Term 1985
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice White
- Issue area
- Due Process
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice White delivered the opinion of the Court. In Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation v. R. A. Gray & Co., 467 U. S. 717 (1984), the Court held that retroactive application of the withdrawal liability provisions of the Multi-employer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980 did not violate the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. In these cases, we address the question whether the withdrawal liability provisions of the Act are valid under the Clause of the Fifth Amendment that forbids the taking of private property for public use without just compensation. I A The background and legislative history of both the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 88 Stat. 829, 29 U. S. C. § 1001 et seq., and the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980 (MPPAA or Act), 94 Stat. 1208, 29 U. S. C. §§ 1381-1461, are set forth in detail in Gray, supra, at 720-725. We therefore only summarize the relevant portions of that description for purposes of our discussion here. Congress enacted ERISA in 1974 to provide comprehensive regulation for private pension plans. In addition to prescribing standards for the funding, management, and benefit provisions of these plans, ERISA also established a system of pension benefit insurance. This “comprehensive and reticulated statute” was designed “to ensure that employees and their beneficiaries would not be deprived of…
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