A Supreme Court case about retirement benefits could hold surprising consequences for America's religious communities. In parsing the legal language, justices may need to redefine what counts as a church.
Advocate Health Care Network v. Stapleton centers on what types of employers are considered religious — or at least religiously affiliated — under Internal Revenue Service pension rules. The petitioners, a group of three religiously affiliated health care systems, argue that they are eligible to run church plan pensions, which are exempt from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. An ERISA exemption means the hospitals don't have to report pension savings to the government or pay related premiums.
Read Full Article »
