United States Second Circuit

In an action challenging the constitutionality of a Bankruptcy Code provision, 11 U.S.C. section 526(a)(4), alleging that the provision's prohibition on debt relief agencies advising clients to incur additional debt in contemplation of bankruptcy violated plaintiff's First Amendment rights, an injunction in favor of plaintiff is reversed where the Supreme Court's decision in Milavetz directly foreclosed plaintiff's as-applied challenge by narrowly construing the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act to avoid his First Amendment complaint.

Appellate Information

• Argued 10/10/2008
• Decided 05/18/2010
• Published 05/18/2010

Judges

• PER CURIAM:, Before B.D. PARKER, LIVINGSTON, and CHIN, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Mark R. Freeman (Mark B. Stern, on the brief), on behalf of Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General, Appellate Staff, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, and Kevin J. O'Connor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, for Defendant-Appellant., Zenas Zelotes, Esq., Norwich, CT, Plaintiff-Appellee, pro se., Barry S. Feigenbaum, Rogin, Nassau, Caplan, Lassman & Hirtle, LLC, Hartford, CT; Peter J. Rubin, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C.; Jonathan S. Massey, Bethesda, Maryland, for Amici Curiae Connecticut Bar Association and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys in support of Plaintiff-Appellee., Gene C. Schaerr, John D. McMickle, Steffen N. Johnson, Jeffrey M. Anderson, Winston & Strawn LLP, Washington, D.C.; Richard M. Whiting, The Financial Services Roundtable, Washington, D.C.; Gregory F. Taylor, American Bankers Association, Washington, D.C., for Movants The Financial Services Roundtable, American Bankers Association, and Consumer Bankers Association in support of Defendant-Appellant.