Rhode Islanders should keep an eye on this story, out of California:

Striking at the sanctity of public pensions in California, a federal judge ruled Wednesday that U.S. bankruptcy law allows the city of Stockton to treat pension fund obligations like other debts, meaning the city could trim benefits.

State laws vary.  Judges vary.  Circumstances vary.  But this is important because it goes to a broadly applicable principle.  U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein is the judge in the case:

The judge spent much of the morning questioning whether CalPERS and its members enjoy a protected status under federal and state laws.

“One can’t mess with CalPERS, that’s the vernacular way of putting it,” the judge said at one point, summarizing the view of CalPERS and Stockton officials.

“Is CalPERS a state unto itself?” Klein mused later.

The labor unions and their backers want everyone to believe otherwise, but the fact that the debt is owed to people who exchanged their work for promises rather than people who exchanged their money for promises doesn’t mean the deal is signed in magic ink that cannot be edited.