Split SCOTUS Curbs Pension Suits With Strict Standing Take (1)

U.S. Bank NA won’t have to face a lawsuit challenging steep losses to its pension plan, because the plan participants who filed suit have nothing to gain or lose through the case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday, in a 5-4 decision along familiar ideological lines.

The participants, James Thole and Sherry Smith, are receiving their full pension benefits and will continue to do so no matter how their case turns out, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the majority. They have no concrete stake in the case’s outcome and therefore lack standing to sue, Kavanaugh said.

“If Thole and Smith ...