State exemptions is the predominant exemption law applicable in bankruptcy cases as the majority of state legislatures have opted out of authority (remember - Pennsylvania has not). As a state legislature amends an exemption statute, the amended exemption becomes applicable to bankruptcy cases filed after the amendments effective date. Those living within an opt out state are therefore subject to such changes made in state exemptions laws. The opt out, however, does not affect the federal non-bankruptcy exemptions that may be available to a debtor with an opt out state. Again, you and your Chester County bankruptcy lawyer should explore the limited reasons why you may want to choose the state exemptions in your bankruptcy.
The language of the code permits the state legislature to prohibit use of only bankruptcy exemptions under 522(d). The state may not, therefore, prohibit bankruptcy debtors who are living within that state from claiming other federal exemptions that are not found in the bankruptcy code.
Any doubt about this confinement of the states to opt out of section 522(d) only was answered implicitly by the Supreme Court's decision in Owen v. Owen, where "Petitioner purchased his Florida condominium in 1984 subject to respondent's pre-existing judgment lien, and the property first qualified as a homestead under a 1985 amendment to the State's homestead law". The fact that the state legislature has opted out of the section 522(d) bankruptcy exemptions does not deprive the bankruptcy court of subject matter jurisdiction over the exempt property, at least until it has been determined to be exempt in fact, either by the absence of timely objections or by the courts ruling upon objections favorably to the debtor. The exemption, once allowed, acts to revest that property in the debtor.