UPDATE1: A bankruptcy court judge ruled in favor of Chrysler yesterday, allowing the automaker to proceed in closing the 789 dealerships. Judge Arthur Gonzalez ruled against the closed dealerships, rejecting the notion that dealers would be a greater asset to the company open rather than shut down. The closed dealers will have an opportunity to file damage claims against Chrysler within a “within a certain time frame yet to be determined, the judge said.”

Separately, the U.S. Supreme Court also ruled in favor of Chrysler and Fiat, allowing the Italian automaker to proceed in purchasing Chrysler assets. The high court ruled against a group of Indiana pension funds who claimed that Chrysler’s bankruptcy proceedings were unlawful.

Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE1: As we originally expected, it seems auto dealers are overwhelmingly Republican to begin with. That being the case, it makes the notion that the White House deliberately chose which Chrysler dealerships to close based on campaign contributions, not only completely foolish but, a mistake even the president’s biggest critics feel even he wouldn’t make.

This is from FiveThirtyEight.com:

Read the rest of this entry »