The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared ready to clean up the disarray it created in 2011 when it cast doubt on the power of bankruptcy court judges to make final judgments in disputed cases.
The exact contours of the fix were not clear. But during the arguments Tuesday in Executive Benefits Insurance Agency v. Arkison, a range of justices seemed to agree that hobbling bankruptcy judges and requiring disputes to be decided solely by Article III district court judges was not required by the Constitution. Unlike presidentially appointed district judges, bankruptcy judges are picked by appeals courts.
