UPDATE: On January 17, 2007, WalMart won at the 4th Circuit.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association won its motion for summary judgment to invalidate Maryland's Fair Share Health Care Fund Act, which mandates that non-governmental employers of 10,000 or more people in the State spend 8% of the total wages paid to those employees on "health insurance costs." As predicted, the argument that the state Act was preempted by the federal ERISA convinced the US District Court in Baltimore. Next stop: Maryland's appeal to the 4th Circuit. As far as I know, the Bush Administration has not intervened with a brief that says whether the law does or doesn't conflict with ERISA. In the unlikely event this goes to the Supreme Court, Justice Scalia presumably would recuse himself because his son is representing RILA and he recused himself from Department of Labor cases in which his son's name was on the DOL's briefs.