Before:
– Report: Michigan Judge Orders Detroit Bankruptcy Filing Withdrawn:
State Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina ruled that the law allowing Gov. Rick Snyder (R) to authorize the bankruptcy filing was unconstitutional, according to Reuters. Aquilina ruled in favor of Detroit retirees and workers who argued the Michigan Constitution protected the retirement benefits in their city pension funds.
– Detroit Plans To Cut Pensions … Cries Of Betrayal
– After Detroit Bankruptcy Filing, City Retirees On Edge As They Face Pension Cuts (Washington Post)
“They want your f$$$ing retirement money!”
– George Carlin (2005)
– Detroit: federal judge halts legal challenges to bankruptcy filing (Guardian, July 24, 2013):
Ruling is major victory for city which had been sued by pension funds claiming bankruptcy threatened 22,000 employees
A federal judge agreed with Detroit on Wednesday and stopped any lawsuits challenging the city’s bankruptcy, declaring his courtroom the exclusive venue for legal action in the largest filing by a local government in US history.
The decision by US bankruptcy judge Steven Rhodes was a major victory for Detroit, especially after an Ingham County judge last week said that Governor Rick Snyder ignored the Michigan constitution and acted illegally in approving the Chapter 9 filing. That ruling and others had threatened to derail the case.
Retirees had sued, claiming the bankruptcy threatened their pensions that are protected by the constitution.
“If these actions are not stopped, the city would be irreparably harmed. … These litigants will have due process. They will have their day in court” – bankruptcy court, Detroit attorney Heather Lennox said during two hours of arguments by the city, pension funds and unions.
Rhodes said Wednesday there is nothing in federal law or the US constitution that gives a state court a concurrent role in a bankruptcy.
The courtroom was jammed with lawyers representing some of the thousands of creditors as well as rank-and-file city employees and retirees eager to know the outcome. Some wore T-shirts that said “Detroit vs Everybody.”
Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr, who recommended bankruptcy, sat in the front row. Outside the courthouse, protesters held a banner with a message for Wall Street: “Cancel Detroit’s debt. The banks owe us.”
There are three lawsuits in state courts challenging the bankruptcy. They mostly focus on a provision in the Michigan Constitution that says public pensions “shall not be diminished or impaired.” Pensions have not been frozen or reduced in the bankruptcy so far, but officials say there are shortfalls in the funds and that payouts could be at risk.
Sharon Levine, an attorney for a union that represents city workers, urged Rhodes to let those lawsuits run their course. She said there’s no federal insurance for public pensions once they’re broken, unlike pensions at private employers.
“Our members who participate at most are at or below $19,000 a year. There is no safety net,” Levine said.
Of course they did. Too many Greedy Guts want to buy up what is left of Detroit’s treasures for pennies on the dollar before leaving it to die in the dust. Today’s corporate civic bankruptcies remind me of a Mafia bust out. They swarm over everything of value, grab them, and leave nothing but broken bits behind. This will only destroy Detroit and enrich the few at the cost of the many.
There is also that public pension fund. A trillion dollars is supposedly there that the workers have paid into for the last 40-50 years. That will vanish, if it has not already, and the workers will be left to starve. More will lose their homes, and everything they ever worked for…..the impoverishment of America…….
They all make me sick.