On February 18, 2022, the NAM filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review and reverse a 9th Circuit decision which sanctions a patchwork system of local regulation of healthcare and retirement benefits in square conflict with ERISA’s expansive preemption provision. This case, ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) v. City of Seattle, involves a challenge to a Seattle ordinance requiring certain employers to make monthly healthcare expenditures to employees at Seattle-specific thresholds. The 9th Circuit rejected the challenge even though Congress intended for federal law—the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA)—to provide a single uniform national scheme for the administration of healthcare and retirement plans without interference from states or municipalities. Indeed, the 1st and 4th Circuits have held that similar laws are preempted under well-established ERISA preemption principles.
The NAM filed an amicus brief in support of Supreme Court review explaining that ERISA preemption plays a critical role in making benefits possible for employees, and state and local rules that conflict with ERISA’s national uniformity must be struck down. As a practical matter, state and local mandates like this one harm workers, forcing employers to divert resources away from providing quality health coverage, and instead spend money to comply with a complex and mismatched patchwork of state and local rules. Already, localities across the country have begun to adopt similar ordinances with varied minimum benefit rates, timelines, definitions, and recordkeeping requirements—a completely unworkable, fragmented regulatory regime. Supreme Court intervention is sorely needed.
Unfortunately, on November 21, 2022, the Supreme Court denied cert.