Lundin

A decade after the constitutionality of the current bankruptcy court structure was settled, the denial of attorney fees to the six bankruptcy judges whose efforts, as amici, had brought about the solution that satisfied both the Constitution and the judges, has produced this appeal.

The six bankruptcy judges were plaintiffs in the first case in a series of constitutional challenges to the 1984 Bankruptcy Act. Lundin v. Mecham, 980 F.2d 1450 (D.C.Cir. 1992). After the Supreme Court held the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 unconstitutional in Northern Pipeline Constr. Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co., 458 U.S. 50 , 102 S.Ct. 2858 , 73 L.Ed.2d 598 (1982), Congress passed several interim measures to keep the bankruptcy courts operational until it finally enacted the Bankruptcy Amendments and Federal Judgeship Act of 1984.

The last of the interim measures expired two weeks before Congress passed the 1984 Act. To remedy the lapse, Congress added a holdover provision that allowed all bankrupt/ cy judges to remain in office until the Act became effective.

*93 The Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, on the advice of counsel, challenged the 1984 Act on the ground that it…