Maria Stapleton v. Advocate Health Care Network

ROWER, Circuit Judge.

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) protects employees from unexpected losses in their retirement plans by setting forth specific safeguards for those employee plans. The Act, however, exempts church plans from those requirements. This case explores the question that has been brewing in the lower federal courts: whether a plan established by a church-affiliated organization, such as a hospital, is also exempt from ERISA’s reach. We conclude that it is not, .

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In response to several highly publicized private pension plan failures, Congress enacted ERISA in…