Will Baude on the Supreme Court's Decision to Review the Puerto Rico Bankruptcy Case

Keeping PROMESA?

Last February I noted that the First Circuit had invalidated the appointments to the Financial Oversight Management Board created by a statute called PROMESA to oversee the Puerto Rico bankruptcy. This was a big deal, and resulted in basically everybody involved asking the Supreme Court to review the case, and on Thursday the Supreme Court agreed.

The basic problem is that under the statute, most of the board members are appointed by the President from a series of lists given to him by the Speaker of the House, the Senate Majority Leader, and the House and Senate Minority Leaders. Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, by contrast, says that "officers of the United States" must be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, or if they are "inferior officers," they can be vested in the President alone. The statute doesn't do either one.

Read more at The Volokh Conspiracy