Thursday, February 02, 2017

Litigators Beware! Judge Gorsuch is a Stickler on Procedural Matters (Except When He Isn't)

This continues a series on the bankruptcy opinions of Neil Gorsuch, President Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Antonin Scalia.   One point which is clear is that Judge Gorsuch strongly believes that rules should be followed and is not sympathetic to arguments that procedural failures may be excused.

Wednesday, February 01, 2017

Did Gorsuch Expand Bankruptcy Court Referral Power?

Newly minted Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch sat on the Tenth Circuit for ten years.  During that time, he signed on to eleven opinions regarding bankruptcy, which means that he wrote about bankruptcy around once a year.    None of his opinions are particularly well-known.  (In contrast, fellow finalist Thomas Hardiman authored the opinion in Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors vs. CIT Group/Business Credit, Inc. (In re Jevic Holding Corp.), 787 F.3d 173 (3rd Cir. 2015) which is currently before the Supreme Court).    However, these opinions demonstrate his crisp writing style and offer some insights into his judicial thinking.   I am going to look at one of his opinions in depth and follow up with a separate post on his remaining decisions.