Thomas More Society urges justices to uphold religious rights. Thomas More Society President and Chief Counsel, Thomas Brejcha, has responded to the March 27, 2017 United States Supreme Court hearing of arguments in the cases of Advocate Health Care Network, Saint Peter’s Healthcare System, and Dignity Health, each of which was determined by a lower court to be ineligible for an ERISA exemption as a church plan.

“A decision against these religiously affiliated charities would be catastrophic,” stated Brejcha. “To have their pension plans suddenly deemed in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) after years and years of contrary treatment would subject them to ruinous retroactive penalties. This is not Wall Street. These are charitable, religious organizations doing good for children, the elderly, and the poor. Finding these plans to be non-exempt would affect the beneficial mission of these organizations and harm those they help. According to the petitioners, literally billions of dollars in penalties are being sought by the class action lawyers behind these cases.”

The issue to be decided is whether the ERISA church-plan exemption applies in circumstances where a pension plan is not “established and maintained for its employees by a church,” but rather is “maintained by an organization…controlled by or associated with a church.” For years, plans maintained by such church-affiliated organizations have been held to be exempt church plans by the IRS, which has issued many private letter rulings to that effect. Recently, however, a split in federal circuit decisions has forced plans, which often operate in multiple states, to confront different and conflicting pension rules in those states. In states where ERISA applies, state laws are preempted. In others, state regulation must be complied with.

“Our amicus brief pointed out the conflict in the circuits, the billions of dollars of penalties the plans would potentially incur in circuits where the exemption has been rejected, and the consequent need for the U.S. Supreme Court to step in to settle the issue once and for all,” said Brejcha. “We are pleased that the highest court in the land is intervening in the legal campaign against faith-based hospitals. Since 2013, almost 100 lawsuits have been filed against hospital systems owned and operated by religious-affiliated entities, in an effort to end or prevent their participation in denominational church pension plans, costing them many billions of dollars.”

The Thomas More Society got involved in the ERISA issue in 2015 when it filed an amicus brief supporting exemption in Rollins v. Dignity Health, before the 9th Circuit. In 2016 that circuit found that an ERISA church plan exemption would not be granted to the religiously affiliated hospital system’s pension plan.

The Thomas More Society then filed an amicus brief urging that this case, and two others previously decided in other circuits, be accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court for review. The amicus brief supporting the petition for writ of certiorari was authored by Washington D.C.-based attorney, Alan E. Untereiner. It highlighted the split in circuit authority, the ruinous potential financial liability posed by the decisions, and the decisions’ contradiction of a consistent 30-year-old interpretation of the law exempting such plans by all three of the federal agencies (DOL, PBGC, and IRS) responsible for administering and enforcing ERISA. “Mr. Untereiner’s work helped the Court focus on the importance of this issue for faith-based organizations, which are guaranteed the right to freely exercise their religious-based mission,” Brejcha said.

The Supreme Court granted certiorari on December 2, 2016. In January 2017, the Thomas More Society, along with the Alliance Defending Freedom, filed an amicus brief on the merits, urging reversal of the lower court decisions. Oral argument was held on March 27, 2017. A decision is expected by June.

View the Thomas More Society’s January 2017 amicus brief urging that the lower court decisions on review be reversed in Advocate Health Care Network, Saint Peter’s Healthcare System, and Dignity Health here.

View the Thomas More Society’s August 2016 amicus brief urging that certiorari be granted in Advocate Health Care Network and Saint Peter’s Healthcare System here.

View the Thomas More Society’s July 2015 amicus brief supporting Catholic hospital organization, Dignity Health, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit here.