“On Monday morning, as the Supreme Court was issuing its big ruling on the Arizona immigration law — and prolonging the suspense on its Affordable Care Act decision — it also quietly decided to end the suspense for the victims of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. Without comment, the court declined to hear a case about which Madoff victims should be compensated and which should not.

Practically from the moment that Irving Picard became the Madoff trustee, he took the position that his job was to get money back for the “net losers” — that is, those who put more into the Madoff fraud than they took out. He planned to do so, in part, by “clawing back” money from the net winners, who took out more than they put in.

Not surprisingly, lawyers for the net winners sued. But, in the lower courts, Picard’s argument held sway, and the Supreme Court saw no reason to wade into the matter…”

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