Virgin Islands Bankruptcy Court Survives Challenge to Authority

The Virgin Islands Bankruptcy Court survived a constitutional challenge to its authority after the Third Circuit found the appellants forfeited their argument by waiting more than a decade to raise it.

The appellants—attorneys, representing themselves pro se, who sought to overturn a sanctions order in a bankruptcy case—argued that the structure of the system is unconstitutional because the bankruptcy judges are transferred from other judicial districts and their orders aren’t subject to direct review by an Article III court, but must first be heard by the US District Court for the Virgin Islands, which is an Article IV court—an ...