
On June 6, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Siegel v. Fitzgerald, in which the Court held that the Bankruptcy Judgeship Act of 2017, Pub. L. 115-72, Div. B, 131 Stat. 1229 (the “2017 Act”) was unconstitutional. The 2017 Act required a significant, temporary increase of the fee rates paid into the United States Trustee System Fund (the “UST Fund”) by debtors in large chapter 11 cases.[1] Underlying the Court’s holding is the Bankruptcy Clause of the Constitution (Article I) which gives Congress the power “to establish… uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States.” The Court held that the 2017 Act was unconstitutional because the fees were not uniformly applied. Perhaps most interestingly, the Court did not decide on a remedy. Instead, it remanded the proceeding back to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals alongside a $325 million[2] question: “Now what?”[3]