Does RadLAX Opinion Help re Absolute Priority Rule in Individual Cases?

A friend commented that the last paragraph of Justice Scalia’s opnion in RadLAX gives us a clue to how the Supremes may rule in Friedman, if the absolute priority rule issue in that case gets to the Supreme Court.  He is certainly right (again).  The code says what it says.

“The Bankruptcy Code standardizes an expansive (and sometimes unruly) area of law, and it is our obligation to interpret the Code clearly and predictably using well established principles of statutory construction.  See United States v. Ron Pair Enterprises, Inc., 489 U. S. 235–241 (1989).  Under that approach, this is an easy case.”

The previous paragraph states:

“[N]othing in the generalized statutory purpose of protecting secured creditors can overcome the specific manner of that protection which the text of §1129(b)(2)(A) contains.  As for pre-Code practices, they can be relevant to the interpretation of an ambiguous text, but we find no textual ambiguity here.  And the pros and cons of credit-bidding are for the consideration of Congress, not the courts.”

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