United States Fourth Circuit

In this class action case, plaintiff public employees challenge the constitutionality of the South Carolina State Retirement System Preservation and Investment Reform Act, which require public employees who retire and then return to work to make the same contributions to state-created pension plans as pre-retirement employees but without receiving further pension benefits. Plaintiffs sought compensatory and injunctive relief prohibiting the future collection of such contributions. Dismissal of plaintiffs' complaint is affirmed, where: 1) the pension plans and the Trust are arms of the State of South Carolina and therefore have sovereign immunity, and the state officials sued in their official capacities for repayment of contributions and for prospective injunctive relief also have sovereign immunity; and 2) plaintiffs' argument that their claims under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment are exempt from the protection of the Eleventh Amendment fails.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/05/2014
• Published 12/05/2014

Judges

• Niemeyer

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel