MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US Supreme Court on September 30 will consider if it hears Argentina’s appeal on hedge funds

The September 30 conference is designed to give the nine justices a head start on their new term, which formally opens October 7

The US Supreme Court will use its Sept. 30 private conference to consider whether to hear Argentina’s appeal in a clash affecting billions of dollars in defaulted debt. The schedule, revealed on Wednesday on the court’s public docket, means the justices may say as early as Oct. 1 whether they will review a 2012 federal appeals court ruling that requires Argentina to pay holders of defaulted bonds if the country makes payments on restructured debt.

The listing on the case docket is a clerical step and doesn’t indicate anything about the likelihood that the court will grant review.

The Sept. 30 conference is designed to give the nine justices a head start on their new term, which formally opens Oct. 7. The justices typically issue a list of new cases they will hear the day after their late September conference. They will release a list of cases they decline to consider, along with other orders, on Oct. 7.

The court doesn’t have to act on the Argentina appeal immediately and could defer a decision. The court could also seek input from the Obama administration.

The appeal is potentially one of two chances the high court will have to hear Argentina’s arguments, which centre on a U.S. sovereign-immunity law.

Argentina also is asking the New York-based appeals court to reconsider a separate ruling, issued in August in two forms: one to the three-judges that supported the lower court ruling and secondly ‘en banc’ which means the fourteen members of the Appeals court. Should the appeals court refuse, Argentina could then file a second request with the Supreme Court.

Argentina’s opponents in the legal fight include NML Capital Ltd., a unit of billionaire hedge-fund manager Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp.

The Supreme Court case is Argentina v. NML Capital, 12-1494. The appeals court case is NML Capital Ltd. v. Republic of Argentina, 12-00105, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (New York).-