The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Thursday that members of the Sackler family cannot be protected from future lawsuits for their roles in the opioid epidemic.
The ruling dismantles the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy settlement, which would have given around $6 billion to state and local governments and more than 100,000 victims and their families.
In the Harrington vs. Purdue Pharma decision, delivered by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, the majority of justices found that a federal bankruptcy code does not authorize a court to confirm a bankruptcy plan that “seeks to discharge claims against a