Supreme Court limits Chapter 13 bankruptcy deductions in first Kagan opinion

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Tuesday ruled [opinion, PDF] 8-1 in Ransom v. FIA Card Services, N.A. [SCOTUSblog backgrounder] that debtors who apply for Chapter 13 bankruptcy cannot use a car payment as a deduction from their repayment plan if the debtor has paid off the automobile. The opinion was the first authored by Justice Elena Kagan [JURIST news archive], who joined [JURIST report] the court in August after serving as solicitor general in the Obama administration…