
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 18, 1990                   TAG: 9006180293
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/8   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

PENSIONS SAVEDI, DUI VIDEOTAPING UPHELD BY COURT

The Supreme Court today spared the federal program protecting the pensions of 30 million American workers from a potential financial crisis.

By an 8-1 vote, the court broadened the authority of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. to order employers to restore terminated pension plans.

A federal appeals court limited such authority last year by setting aside the agency's order that LTV Corp. and its subsidiary, LTV Steel Co., restore three pension plans with unfunded liabilities of $2.3 billion. Today's decision reversed the appeals court ruling.

Government lawyers told the justices the appeals court ruling, if not overturned, "could lead to a financial crisis similar to that currently facing" the government insurance program for the savings and loan industry.

At issue was the agency's power to shift liability for pension payments back to an employer in what is called an "anti-follow-on policy."

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., modeled after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp., is wholly owned by the federal government. Its board of directors is comprised of the secretaries of labor, treasury and commerce.

The agency protects the pension benefits of the 30 million workers who participate in single-employer pension plans.

When a pension plan is ended with insufficient money to satisfy promised benefits, the agency becomes the pension plan's trustee, taking over its assets and liabilities. The agency then pays - with taxpayer money - benefits workers had earned as of the date the pension plan ended.

In other action:

The court also refused to kill a lawsuit in which a woman who claims to be Hank Williams Sr.'s daughter seeks some of the late country music legend's copyright royalties.

The justices, without comment, let stand a federal appeals court ruling that Cathy Yvonne Stone, 37, is entitled to have her legal fight put before a jury.

The court also left intact the conviction and $250 fine of a man cited for preaching too loudly outside a Hagerstown, Md., abortion clinic.

The justices, without comment, refused to hear arguments that the state law used to prosecute Jerry Wayne Eanes violates free-speech rights.

by CNB