Cite as: 503 U. S. 638 (1992)
Stevens, J., dissenting
ble considerations dictate that a debtor should not be allowed exemptions to which she is obviously not entitled." This view was echoed in In re Rollins, 63 B. R. 780, 783-784 (Bkrtcy. Ct. ED Tenn. 1986): "[T]he debtor cannot make property exempt simply by claiming it as exempt when there is no apparent legal basis for the exemption. In that situation, the trustee's failure to object to the claim of exemption within the time limit of Rule 4003(b) does not create an exemption." More recently, the court in In re Ehr, 116 B. R. 665, 667 (Bkrtcy. Ct. ED Wis. 1988), reaffirmed this approach, as did the court in In re Staniforth, 116 B. R. 127, 130 (Bkrtcy. Ct. WD Wis. 1990). As one court explained: "Read strictly, Rule 4003 and Section 522(l) support appellants' position concerning waiver. But, most courts have not followed appellants' interpretation of these provisions. Instead, most courts hold that an exemption must have an apparent legal basis for an exemption to overcome an untimely objection." In re Stutterheim, 109 B. R. 1010, 1012 (Kan. 1989).
The equitable principles that motivated these Bankruptcy Courts are best encapsulated by the court in In re Bennett, 36 B. R. 893 (Bkrtcy. Ct. WD Ky. 1984). There, the court explained that to apply Rule 4003(b) rigidly would be to encourage a debtor to claim that all of her property was exempt, thus leaving it to the trustee and creditors to sift through the myriad claimed exemptions to assess their validity. Such a policy would result in reversion to "the law of the streets, with bare possession constituting not nine, but ten, parts of the law; orderly administration of estates would be replaced by uncertainty and constant litigation if not outright anarchy." Id., at 895.4
4 Bankruptcy courts would understandably be reluctant to encourage a policy that would contribute to the overburdening of the bankruptcy court system. As counsel for the trustee explained: "Last year there were 880,000 bankruptcy filings, 291 bankruptcy judges to deal with all of those filings, and a real need on the part of the bankruptcy courts to rely on the
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