Moody's Investors Service Inc. expressed skepticism that the state Supreme Court would reverse the circuit court ruling. "While a lower-court ruling can, of course, be reversed, this summer the Illinois Supreme Court indicated in a separate case on retiree health benefits that it will adhere strictly to the pension protection clause, a legal barrier that for many years has impeded political consensus on reforms affecting current Illinois pension participants," the ratings agency said in a Nov. 24 report. Illinois' credit rating of A3 is the lowest among U.S. states, five notches below the median, Moody's said. The ratings agency added that Illinois' ratio of adjusted net pension liability to revenue was 268% in 2013, well above the 60% median for all states. In a Nov. 11 report, Moody's Analytics referred to Illinois as "the country's most financially troubled state."