Posted on 03/23/2016 6:42:06 PM PDT by Steelfish
Sotomayor Helps Puerto Rico Argue Its Bankruptcy Case Noah Feldman
Before Tuesday, I’d have said that Puerto Rico had no chance to win its legal fight to let its municipalities and utilities declare bankruptcy. That's how the island hopes to resolve its overwhelming debt problems, but the federal bankruptcy code says that it can't.
That's what the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held last summer, unanimously. The statute seemed so clear that even Judge Juan Torruella, the appellate court’s only Puerto Rican member, concurred in an outraged separate opinion criticizing the federal law.
Then Sonia Sotomayor stepped in. Oral arguments before the Supreme Court rarely change the outcome of a case, yet Tuesday's session may turn out to be the exception. In a fascinating and unusual argument, Justice Sotomayor, who is herself of Puerto Rican descent, spoke by my count an astonishing 45 times. Sotomayor left no doubt that she was speaking as an advocate.
The interpretation of the law she favored would make the system fairer to Puerto Rico, allowing the commonwealth to create its own emergency bankruptcy measures outside federal law. But it depends on a highly doubtful reading of the statute, one that stretches credulity when read into the text. Ideally, Congress will hear what happened at the oral argument and pass one of the reform proposals it’s currently considering that would spare the court from having to decide the case.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Case will probably be “affirmed by an equally divided Court.” That would mean PR loses.
She needs be impeached
Is anyone surprised that an Obama SCOTUS pick would blatantly flaunt United States Law??? And some dufus Republicans want to go ahead with Garland??? Appalling!!
Puerto Rico is what happens when you give a perfectly good island to Mexicans. It is a wonder it hasn’t capsized yet
Impeachment is easy, only need a majority of the House. Conviction is very hard, need two-thirds of the Senates. The Senate Democrats wouldn’t vote to convict her even she murdered of the Justices in open court. So she won’t be removed and impeachment is futile.
C U Next Tuesday.
She’s that “wise Latina” doncha know, just sharing her expertise with the side she advocates. Pathetic.
I don’t see what the problem is.
if PR wants to stop paying interest on its bonds,
just stop.
It's a friggin' bastion for defending "politically correct" ideologies.
That argument can be extended to most places. Imagine what Camden NJ would be like if the population were entirely Swiss.
“La Federal government syndrome”
She is of Puerto Rican descent,she should be abstaining from the Case.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.