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The last time public pension plans were before the U.S. Supreme Court was 1937 in the matter of Dodge v. Board of Education, 302 U.S. 74, but a recent decision by the court in an ERISA case, Thole v. U.S. Bank, 140 S. Ct. 1615 (2020), may have a significant effect on public pension plans for years to come. If extended to apply to public pensions, the double-edged ruling has the potential to further insulate public defined benefit plans from liability for benefit recipients' claims, while undermining their legal protections against political interference.

Thole concerns the standing under ERISA of participants in private defined benefit (DB) plans to pursue breach of duties of loyalty and prudence claims against their plans' trustees.

The plaintiffs argued that trustees made poor investment decisions that cost the plan $750 million. The court, in a 5-4 vote authored by Justice Kavanaugh, held that the plaintiffs lacked Article III standing because they could not show a concrete injury that would be redressed by the result of the case.