................. BenefitsLink Newsletter ............. { { Free, useful information about U.S. tax and labor laws { and new Internet resources, for employee benefit plan { sponsors, service-providers and participants. ......................................................... ERISA PREEMPTS LOUISIANA COMMUNITY PROPERTY LAW, SAY THE SUPREMES ------------------------------------------------------------- In Boggs v. Boggs, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 2 in a 5 to 4 opinion that ERISA's survivor annuity provisions preempted an attempt by the children of a deceased participant's former marriage to obtain benefits that had passed to the participant's surviving spouse under ERISA's survivor annuity rules. Full text is on BenefitsLink at http://www.benefitslink.com/cases/boggs.html PREEMPTION, PART II: BUT ERISA DOES NOT PREEMPT NEW YORK STATE TAX ON HEALTH PLANS ------------------------------------------------------------- New York's Health Facility Assessment (HFA) imposes a tax on gross receipts for patient services at diagnostic and treatment centers. Reversing the Second Circuit, the Supreme Court ruled on June 2 that the tax is not preempted by ERISA. Two justices dissented: Scalia and Thomas. Full text is on BenefitsLink at http://www.benefitslink.com/cases/debuono.html ................. BenefitsLink Newsletter ............... { { To unsubscribe: send email to majordomo@bolis.com { with "UNSUBSCRIBE BL-newsletter" in the text of the email { without the quotation marks. { { To subscribe: send email to majordomo@bolis.com { with "SUBSCRIBE BL-newsletter" in the text of the email { without the quotation marks. { { Your email address is not sold or leased to junk mailers { or any other organization ... no spam, just BenefitsLink! { { To contribute information for publication or to learn { more about sponsoring an issue of the newsletter, please { contact the editor at erisa@benefitslink.com. { { BenefitsLink is the national employee benefits Web site { at http://www.benefitslink.com -- Dave Baker, Editor.