Religious hospitals don't have to comply with federal laws protecting pension plans, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday in a case that affects retirement benefits for roughly a million workers nationwide. The justices sided with three church-affiliated nonprofit hospital systems being sued for underfunding their employee pension plans. Pension plans are required to be fully funded and insured under federal law, but Congress carved out narrow exemptions for churches and other religious organizations. But three federal appeals courts had ruled against the hospitals —Illinois-based Advocate Health Care Network, California-based Dignity Health and New Jersey-based Saint Peter's Healthcare System. ———This story is corrected to note that Advocate Health Care Network is based in Illinois, not California, and Dignity Health is based in California, not Illinois.

Source: ABC News June 05, 2017 15:05 UTC