Five or ten years ago, what odds would anyone have given me that I would ever write the phrase "Anna Nicole Smith in the Supreme Court"?

Nonetheless, as many are surely aware, the Anna Nicole Smith bankruptcy case is indeed in the Supreme Court.

The excellent Bankruptcy Litigation Blog has promised wall-to-wall coverage of the case. Steve Jakubowski (what is it with we Poles and bankruptcy law?) has a post up on the Amicus brief filed by the United States, supporting Ms. Smith (known in the case as Marshall, after her late husband). I'm sure we all remember the particular facts surrounding Ms. Smith's marriage to the late Mr. Marshall that eventually gave rise to this case.

Nothwithstanding the personal flamboyance of the Petitioner in the case, the issue is actually a very technical one of the scope of the "probate exception" to federal jurisdiction as it applies in bankruptcy proceedings. It is nonetheless quite an interesting case and Steve's bankruptcy litigation blog will be the place to go to follow it.