Is Detroit’s Bankruptcy Filing Unconstitutional?

Is Detroit’s Bankruptcy Filing Unconstitutional?

Is Detroit’s Bankruptcy Filing Unconstitutional?

Bond holders are at odds with municipal workers over who will bear the brunt of the city’s bankruptcy.

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Bond holders are at odds with municipal workers over who will bear the brunt of Detroit’s bankruptcy. Yesterday, unions and two public pension funds that represent City workers and retirees submitted formal objections to Detroit’s bankruptcy filing, arguing that emergency manager Kevin Orr is miscalculating how much the City’s pension obligations are underfunded.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes is joined by Lee Saunders, president of the AFSCME union, and Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic Policy and Research, to respond to the right-wing caricature of Detroit’s demise and debate whether the City’s effort to defund pension plans is unconsitutional.

—Jake Scobey-Thal

Bankruptcy court is not a democracy.

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