Cornell Workers Urge Close Textual Read of ERISA at High Court

Exceptions to statutory conflict-of-interest protections shouldn’t inform how courts interpret federal benefits law, petitioners told the US Supreme Court in the opening brief to a key workplace retirement plan case.

Participants and beneficiaries to a Cornell University 403(b) plan want the high court to overturn a 2023 decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which automatically applied separate exceptions for “reasonable and necessary” recordkeeping relationships to prohibited transaction claims the workers had made against their employer.

“That is a policy fix under the guise of a quasi-textual solution,” attorneys for the Cornell University 403(b) plan participants ...