Friday, May 08, 2015

In Re Pension Reform Litigation

Our economy is and has always been subject to fluctuations, sometimes very extreme fluctuations.  The law was clear that the promised benefits would therefore have to be paid and that the responsibility for providing the state's share of the necessary funding fell squarely on the legislature's shoulders.

The General Assembly may find itself in crisis, but it is a crisis which other public pension systems managed to avoid and ... it is a crisis for which the General Assembly itself is largely responsible.

It is our obligation, however, just as it is theirs, to ensure that the law is followed.  That is true at all times.  It is especially important in times of crisis when, as this case demonstrates, even clear principles and long-standing precedent are threatened.  Crisis is not an excuse to abandon the rule of law.  It is a summons to defend it.

-- Republican Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier, in the unanimous opinion In Re Pension Reform Litigation, 8 May 2015

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