DETROIT (AP) — A judge has given Detroit the green light to cut pensions as a way out of the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, a decision that puts the case in the laps of thousands of retirees who had hoped that the Michigan Constitution would protect them from getting smaller checks in their golden years.

DETROIT (AP) — Lawyers jammed a courtroom Wednesday for the first hearing in Detroit’s bankruptcy case, as a judge set out to decide whether anxious city retirees can slow down the process with lawsuits in other courts.