Federal Law That Lowered Pension Payments Survives Takings Claim

Application of a federal law that lowered the monthly annuity participants received from a pension plan on the verge of financial collapse wasn’t an unconstitutional taking, the Federal Circuit ruled Monday.

The plaintiffs didn’t have a recognized property right in the proceeds from their pension, and adoption of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act wasn’t a regulatory taking, Judge Timothy B. Dyk said for the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The New York State Teamsters Conference Pension & Retirement Fund is a private multiemployer pension plan. In May 2017, the plan determined that if it continued to make ...