DOJ Bankruptcy Fee Hike Constitutional, 5th Circ. Says

A 2017 federal change temporarily increasing fees bankrupt companies’ estates pay to the Justice Department is constitutional, the Fifth Circuit ruled.

Putting its stamp on an issue that has split several bankruptcy courts around the country, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said in an opinion Tuesday that the fee hikes are justified and appropriately being used to fund the DOJ’s U.S. Trustee Program.

“It is reasonable for Congress to have those who benefit from the Trustee Program fill the hole in its finances,” a split three-judge panel said.

The ruling reverses a Texas bankruptcy court’s 2019 ...