In its June 6, 2022 opinion in Siegel v. Fitzgerald, the United States Supreme Court resolved a circuit split and invalidated a 2017 statute that increased U.S. Trustee fees in 48 states—but not Alabama or North Carolina—as unconstitutional under the uniformity requirement of the Constitution’s Bankruptcy Clause. See Siegel v. Fitzgerald, 596 U.S. ___ (2022).

U.S. Trustee Fees, a History

On July 5, 2022, New York-based cryptocurrency exchange, Voyager Digital Holdings, Inc. along with its publicly traded Canadian affiliate, Voyager Digital Ltd., filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Case No. 22-10943). The company reports $1 to $10 billion in both assets and liabilities.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a dispute between Mall of America and Transform Holdco LLC as to whether a lease Transform acquired at a bankruptcy sale can be challenged after that sale has closed. Sections 363(b)(1) and 363(m) of the Bankruptcy Code are at play here. Section 363(b)(1) generally permits a bankruptcy trustee, after notice and hearing, to use, sell, or lease property that belongs to the bankruptcy estate outside of the ordinary course of business.

The first week of July has brought with it a flurry of activity in the digital asset markets – but not the type of activity that investors in the space likely hoped for.

As a parent of three young children, Disney’s excellent new movie, Encanto, has been on heavy rotation in my household. It’s a story of an extended family whose members possess unique magical gifts. Through several humorous songs, the film reveals that the family has ostracized one member, Bruno, whose mystical visions of future calamities upset the rest of the family. Rather than confront the unpleasant aspects of the future, the family finds it easier to simply “not talk about” them, or Bruno.

In This Issue:

Justice Stephen G. Breyer is now retired from the U.S. Supreme Court, serving from August 3, 1994, to June 30, 2022.

One of his legacies—and an exceedingly important one—is this: he has worked, successfully, to erase “public rights” from the lexicon of controlling bankruptcy law.

What follows is a summary of how “public rights” came to be part of that lexicon, and how Justice Breyer works to get it erased.

“PUBLIC RIGHTS” BEGINNING—Northern Pipeline

Companies work with experts to secure litigation favorable judgments only to face obstacles to enforcement. By learning how to “think like a bad debtor,” creditors can work with specialists to pursue multimillion judgments and uncollected awards.

On July 5, 2022, Scandinavian airline SAS AB, along with several affiliates, filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Case No. 22-10925), reporting $10 to $50 billion in assets and $1 to $10 billion in liabilities.

The case before the U.S. Supreme Court is MOAC Mall Holdings LLC v. Transform Holdco LLC, Case No. 21-1270.

The bankruptcy question upon which the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari is this: