WilmerHale Earns Favorable Ruling for Guam’s Attorney General

• 4.12.2007

On March 27, WilmerHale achieved a victory in the US Supreme Court on behalf of the Attorney General of Guam in a dispute over the interpretation of a debt limitation imposed on the territorial government by Congress.

The Court held that the federal statute limiting public debt to 10% of the “aggregate tax valuation” of property on Guam should be interpreted to mean the assessed valuation of property used for taxation purposes, rather than the full appraised value, as argued by the Guam Governor. The decision reversed a judgment of the Guam Supreme Court upholding the legality of a 2003 bond issue.

The WilmerHale team on the case included Seth Waxman, Randolph Moss, Jonathan Cedarbaum, and Kelly Cochran.