By: Mark Glennon* If the argument made by a coalition of public pensions in their court filing last week is correct (or if pension-friendy judges simply want to rule that its’ correct), then the best and only plausible defense the state has for upholding pension reform will have been lost without ever having been presented. Then, it will be fairly be asked why that defense wasn’t asserted earlier, and whether the Attorney General’s office was out-maneuvered. The issue is whether, strictly as matter of law, an exception can be made to the plain language of the Illinois Constitution