[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

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No. 20-12547 ____________________

IN RE: MOSAIC MANAGEMENT GROUP, INC., Debtor. ___________________________________________________ UNITED STATES TRUSTEE REGION 21, Plaintiff-Appellee Cross-Appellant, versus BAST AMRON LLP, Defendant-Appellant Cross-Appellee. ____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida USCA11 Case: 20-12547 Document: 107-1 Date Filed: 06/23/2023 Page: 2 of 27

2 Opinion of the Court 20-12547

D.C. Docket No. 16-bk-20833-EPK ____________________

Before JORDAN, BRASHER, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges. ANDERSON, Circuit Judge: In this appeal after remand from the Supreme Court, we ad- dress the appropriate remedy for the constitutional violation iden- tified in Siegel v. Fitzgerald, 596 U.S. __, 142 S. Ct. 1770 (2022). We received supplemental briefing and held another oral argument on the remedy issues. I. In 2008, Debtors Mosaic Management Group, Inc., Mosaic Alternative Assets, Ltd., and Paladin Settlements, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of Florida, a “UST district” in which the U.S. Trustee program operates. In June 2017, the bankruptcy court confirmed a joint Chapter 11 plan, under which most of the Debtors’ assets were transferred to an Invest- ment Trust managed by an Investment Trustee. In September 2019, the Investment Trustee filed a motion requesting a determination of the Investment Trust’s quarterly fee liability and seeking a reimbursement of its overpayment of those fees. Among other arguments, the Investment Trustee argued that Congress violated constitutional tax and bankruptcy uni- formity requirements when it passed the Bankruptcy Judgeship Act of 2017 (the “2017 Amendment”), which temporarily increased fees for the largest debtors in Chapter 11 cases in UST districts. The USCA11 Case: 20-12547 Document: 107-1 Date Filed: 06/23/2023 Page: 3 of 27

20-12547 Opinion of the Court 3

purpose of the 2017 Amendment was to address a dwindling U.S. Trustee program budget resulting from declining bankruptcy fil- ings and to fund bankruptcy judgeships. Bankruptcy Judgeship Act of 2017, Pub. L. No. 115-72, sec. 1004(a), § 1930(a)(6), 131 Stat. 1224, 1232; H.R. Rep. No. 115-130, at 7–9 (2017), as reprinted in 2017 U.S.C.C.A.N. 154, 159. From 2018 through 2022, if the U.S. Trustee System Fund had a balance of less than $200 million in the prior fiscal year, the 2017 Amendment provided that the “quarterly fee payable for a quarter in which disbursements equal or exceed $1,000,000 shall be the lesser of 1 percent of such disbursements or $250,000.” Pub. L. No. 115-72, sec. 1004(a), § 1930(a)(6), 131 Stat. at 1232. Otherwise, the existing fee schedule remained. In contrast to this amendment to 11 U.S.C. § 1930(a)(6) governing f