Barrick Gold Exploration, Inc. v. Hudson

DAVID A. NELSON, Circuit Judge.

We are presented in this appeal with a challenge to the constitutionality of the Coal Industry Retiree Health Benefits Act of 1992, 26 U.S.C. §§ 9701, et seq. (the “Coal Act”), as applied to the plaintiff companies.1

The plaintiffs conducted coal mining operations over a number of years, and they or their predecessors bound themselves to a series of collective bargaining agreements, known as National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreements (“NBCWAs”), with the United Mine Workers of America. These agreements, the last of which was negotiated in 1988, included provisions…