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BERNARD F. SCHULTZ; ELIZABETH M. SABATINE, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Defendant-Appellee. |
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
No. 07-00012—R. Allan Edgar, District Judge.
Argued: March 17, 2008
Decided and Filed: June 2, 2008
Before: RYAN, SILER, and COLE, Circuit Judges.
R. GUY COLE, JR., Circuit Judge. Plaintiffs-Appellants Bernard Francis Schultz and Elizabeth Mary Sabatine (hereinafter “the Schultzes”), husband and wife and residents of Hamilton County, Tennessee, filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 13 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Independently, the Schultzes filed a complaint for declaratory judgment in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, alleging that the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (“BAPCPA” or “the Act”) violates Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 of the Constitution (the “Bankruptcy Clause”), which gives Congress the power to establish “uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States.” U.S. CONST. art. 1, § 8, cl. 4 (emphasis added). The district court granted the Government’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed the Schultzes’ complaint. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.