Steven Greenhut on the Stockton Bankruptcy Case and Slicing Pensions

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Steven Greenhut

"If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts," goes the old legal adage. "If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table." A newly published federal court decision, writes Steven Greenhut, found the California Public Employees' Retirement System was merely banging the legal table with its "iron fist" in the Stockton bankruptcy case, with the judge rejecting the pension fund's argument that California cities could not reduce pension benefits even in bankruptcy.