Supreme Court Declines Trump Resorts Case That Stripped Workers' Benefits

By Nina Totenberg

Published May 31, 2016 at 12:24 PM CDT

Union members demonstrate outside the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, N.J., earlier this year to protest new owner Carl Icahn's refusal to reinstate health insurance and pension benefits that previous owners eliminated in bankruptcy court.

On a day when all things Trump seem to be in the news, the Supreme Court got into the act too on Tuesday.

The justices let stand lower court rulings in favor of Trump Entertainment Resorts and against 1,000 unionized casino workers.

In 2014, Trump Entertainment Resorts, including the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J., was in dire straights financially. When the company filed for bankruptcy protection, it won a ruling from a federal bankruptcy judge stripping the casino workers of their health insurance and payments to the pension fund.

The union appealed, arguing that those benefits were part of the collective bargaining agreement in which salary had been sacrificed to pay for health insurance. But a federal appeals court upheld the bankruptcy court order, and on Tuesday the Supreme Court, without comment, declined to review it.

Trump has had only had a minor stock interest in Trump Entertainment Resorts since its second bankruptcy in 1992. The company is now owned by billionaire Carl Icahn, an avid Trump supporter.

The Supreme Court receives some 9,000 appeals each term, from which it selects only 70-80 for review. Failure to hear a case leaves the lower court decision in place but does not indicate either approval or disapproval.