BrianGarst.com

In a disappointment to the handful of people left who believe in the U.S. Constitution, the Supreme Court has lifted its stay on the impending sale of Chrysler to Fiat.

The U.S. Supreme Court last night declined to hear an appeal from opponents of the sale of Chrysler’s assets to Italian automaker Fiat, clearing the way for the government-backed transaction to take place immediately.

The order capped a hectic week in which creditors, dealers and others raced to block a deal that now appears destined to become a template for a similar bankruptcy involving General Motors.

SCOTUSblog says ‘not so fast’ to the White House’s claim of unconditional victory:

In what may have been an excess of exuberance, the White House issued a statement about the Chrysler deal Tuesday night. Attributed to an unnamed White House official, it included this assertion: “We are gratified that not a single court that reviewed this matter, including the U.S. Supreme Court, found any fault whatsoever with the handling of this matter by either Chrysler or the U.S. Government….” There are some problems with that, and they are not mere legal technicalities.

The state of what might be called “bailout” law has not been reviewed at all by the Supreme Court, except at a somewhat speculative level of whether there was a chance the Court would rule against the deal if it did rule on the merits. It was not convinced, at this stage, that it would do so if that time came.

Fundamental constitutional issues surround the use of federal funds in the Chrysler bailout, as do a host of questions about using the bankruptcy laws as they were in this case.  They were raised in the papers filed at the Court this week, but they were not answered in any final way.

OpenMarket has a good rundown for further reading.

Chrysler