We don’t want to rile up the boys from the Times, so we’re going to state up front that this post will contain a good amount of speculation. But we’re big-picture types over here, and this morning we’re wondering if there will be a big-picture takeaway from the Supreme Court’s foray into the Chrysler bankruptcy.
Quick recount: after failed efforts by the Germans (Daimler) and private-equity (Cerberus), and amid the worst economic storm in a lifetime, Chrysler was forced into bankruptcy court, where it was quickly, very quickly, reconstituted and sold to the Italians (Fiat), the unions and the US government. Some pension funds in Indiana thought they got a raw deal, and appealed the sale. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg yesterday, minutes before a deadline for intervening in the matter, intervened, issuing a stay of the sale.
The court could clarify its intentions by today, the Journal reports, although it didn’t give any indication about what that would be.
It could just be that the Court, which doesn’t usually hear bankruptcy cases, needed more time to wade through the paperwork, Harvard Law professor David Zaring writes at The Conglomerate blog. Or it could be something else. “I am tempted to assume that the Taking Clause question is one that Ginsburg finds intriguing,” he writes.
