Central Virginia Community College v. Katz,
___ U.S. ___ (2006)
The Bankruptcy Clause, Art. I, §8, cl. 4, empowers Congress to establish "uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States." In Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation v. Hood, 541 U. S. 440, this Court, without reaching the question whether the Clause gives Congress the authority to abrogate States' immunity from private suits, see id., at 443, upheld the application of the Bankruptcy Code, 11 U. S. C. §101 et seq., to proceedings initiated by a debtor against a state agency to determine the dischargeability of a student loan debt, see 541 U. S., at 451. In this case, a proceeding commenced by respondent Bankruptcy Trustee under §§547(b) and 550(a) to avoid and recover alleged preferential transfers by the debtor to petitioner state agencies, the agencies claim that the proceeding is barred by sovereign immunity. The Bankruptcy Court denied petitioners' motions to dismiss on that ground, and the District Court and the Sixth Circuit affirmed based on the Circuit's prior determination that Congress has abrogated the States' sovereign immunity in bankruptcy proceedings.
Held: A bankruptcy trustee's proceeding to set aside the debtor's preferential transfers to state agencies is not barred by sovereign immunity.
Stevens, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which O'Connor, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer, JJ., joined. Thomas, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Roberts, C. J., and Scalia and Kennedy, JJ., joined.
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