Rhode Island, the site of a sweeping pension overhaul last year, has brought in a prominent New York lawyer to litigate the question of whether a judge ruled impartially on pension cuts when her mother, her son, her uncle and even she herself all have a stake in preserving the status quo, the New York Times reported today. David Boies, perhaps best known for representing Al Gore in the fight over the 2000 presidential election and for waging an antitrust battle against Microsoft on behalf of the government in the 1990s, has been hired in the case. Rhode Island’s dispute is being closely watched as a first major test of whether, and how, financially strained states and cities can cut the benefits of their workers and retirees. Several public employee unions have sued Gov. Lincoln Chafee and other Rhode Island officials, accusing them of acting illegally when they pushed through a package of money-saving pension cuts last year, including suspending annual cost-of-living increases for most retirees. The unions want the richer benefits restored. Their five pension lawsuits were assigned to Judge Sarah Taft-Carter of the state Superior Court, who has handled public pension cases before and handed a big victory to the unions in one recent case. Boies, who at $50 an hour is working for a small fraction of his ordinary fee, is seeking a less conflicted judge, and could even ask to move the case into federal court.
