Bast Amron LLP v. United States Trustee Region 21

The Bankruptcy Clause authorizes Congress to “establish * * * uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States.” Notwithstanding this directive, Congress has divided the nation’s bankruptcy courts into 88 judicial districts operating under the U.S. Trustee program, and 6 judicial districts (all in North Carolina and Alabama) operating under the Bankruptcy Administrator program. Each program generally performs similar tasks, and each program—until recently—imposed the same quarterly fees on Chapter 11 debtors in their districts. In the Bankruptcy Judgeship Act of 2017, however, Congress increased quarterly fees paid only in U.S. Trustee districts—increasing the maximum fee from $30,000 to $250,000 for all pending cases. 28 U.S.C. 1930(a)(6)(B) (2018). That same increase was not imposed in Administrator districts until nine months later, and it applied only to cases filed after that date. The result is a wide disparity in fees paid by identically situated debtors based solely on the geographic location of their bankruptcy. In the decision below, the Eleventh Circuit joined the Fourth and Fifth Circuits (both over dissents) in upholding these nonuniform fees; the Second and Tenth Circuits have rejected those decisions and declared the 2017 Act unconstitutional. The question presented is: Whether the Bankruptcy Judgeship Act violates the uniformity requirement of the Bankruptcy Clause by increasing quarterly fees solely in U.S. Trustee districts.