SEPARATE STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER EDITH H. JONES

Although I do not wish to burden this Report further, I am compelled to point out that I cannot participate in the discussion of the Seminole case, an important decision describing the limits of federal courts jurisdiction over suits against non-consenting states. This case raises issues that are sure to come before my court, and inasmuch as the Commission's statements concerning Seminole cannot possibly furnish the basis for legislative action and are purely advisory, I stand recused.

Further, it is inappropriate for the Commission to have requested and printed CBO criticism of the Visa and Purdue studies on consumer bankruptcy. The Commission is being used as a stalking-horse to take sides in an ongoing academic debate over economic issues in consumer bankruptcy. I will not enter this debate. The Commission should not have been used this way.⁽²⁷⁷²⁾

Beyond that, to make the record clear, I particularly endorse the following proposals of the Commission:

• Streamlining appeals by routing them directly to courts of appeals;

• Small Business Chapter 11 Proposal;

• Single Asset Real Estate Proposal;

• Amendments to the preference laws for small creditors;

• Dissenting Commissioners' Recommendations on Consumer Bankruptcy;

• Dissent on certain Chapter 11 Issues.

Two of my suggestions, voted down by the Commission, deserve further consideration by Congress:

• the "Tithing Proposal" to relieve churches and charities from being sued in fraudulent conveyance law;

• clarifying the law to insure that divorce-related property settlements remain non-dischargeable.

Finally, I am committed to the dissent on "Process". Similar "Process" problems continue. For some strange reason, and over the express Commission vote to the contrary, Professor Gross's report on debtor education is going to become part of the Appendix. Likewise included there is the Morris/Wedoff report on dischargeability issues, most of which we either rejected or did not consider. Congress should not gain any misimpression that these documents, although generated for the Commission by well-intentioned authors, have any more significant role in our recommendations than the thousands of other documents the Commission received.

I owe a great debt to the loyalty and hard work of my secretaries, Ranell Hopkins and Linda James, and my law clerks, Meredith A. Duncan, Jeffrey Kubin and Andrew Wisch in these last difficult days preceding our submissions to the Report.

Notes:

²⁷⁷²  Commissioner John A. Gose agrees with this statement. Return to text