Supreme Court Says Government Doesn’t Have to Refund Bankruptcy Fees

The Supreme Court on June 14 rejected on a 6–3 vote a bankrupt company’s claim that excessive court fees it paid should be refunded after the nation’s highest court struck down the law authorizing the fee schedule in 2022. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote the majority opinion in Office of the U.S. Trustee v. John Q. Hammons Fall 2006 LLC. Three conservative justices dissented. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) runs the U.S. Trustee Program, which it describes as “the component of the Department of Justice responsible for overseeing the administration of bankruptcy cases and private trustees.” A group of hotels argued that it was treated unfairly when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Kansas....