Michael Berger, partner in the appellate practice, authored an article for Daily Journal on a recent U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, decision in a suit brought against the state of Washington alleging the state did not have the right to “skim” the daily interest earned by members of the state’s teachers’ retirement fund. The court found that the state did not have a right to this money and that the money earned in interest is owned by whomever owns the principal. In the article, Berger notes that “the state’s position is that a state has the absolute right to decide what constitutes ‘property’ within its borders and it is free both to define and to redefine that concept at will.”