Cite as: 524 U. S. 498 (1998)
Opinion of OTMConnor, J.
interferes with investment-backed expectations, and the character of the governmental action—we determined that the MPPAA did not violate the Takings Clause. Id., at 225.
The governmental action at issue in Connolly was not a physical invasion of employers' assets; rather, it "safeguard[ed] the participants in multiemployer pension plans by requiring a withdrawing employer to fund its share of the plan obligations incurred during its association with the plan." Ibid. In addition, although the amounts assessed under the MPPAA were substantial, we found it important that "[t]he assessment of withdrawal liability [was] not made in a vacuum, . . . but directly depend[ed] on the relationship between the employer and the plan to which it had made contributions." Ibid. Further, "a significant number of provisions in the Act . . . moderate[d] and mitigate[d] the economic impact of an individual employer's liability." Id., at 225-226. Accordingly, we found "nothing to show that the withdrawal liability actually imposed on an employer w[ould] always be out of proportion to its experience with the plan." Id., at 226. Nor did the MPPAA interfere with employers' reasonable investment-backed expectations, for, by the time of the MPPAA's enactment, "[p]rudent employers . . . had more than sufficient notice not only that pension plans were currently regulated, but also that withdrawal itself might trigger additional financial obligations." Id., at 227. For those reasons, we determined that "fairness and justice" did not require anyone other than the withdrawing employers and the remaining parties to the pension agreements to bear the burden of funding employees' vested benefits. Ibid.
We once more faced challenges to the MPPAA under the Due Process and Takings Clauses in Concrete Pipe & Products of Cal., Inc. v. Construction Laborers Pension Trust for Southern Cal., 508 U. S. 602 (1993). In that case, the employer focused on the fact that its contractual commitment to the multiemployer plan did not impose withdrawal liabil-
527
Page: Index Previous 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007