The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the bankruptcy settlement between the United States and the opioid manufacturer Perdue Pharma, the creator of the OxyCotin painkiller that helped spark a nationwide addiction crisis.
After digesting the ruling, legal analysts explained that while the Court killed the $6 billion settlement, it doesn't take Perdue off the hook.
"This case was about whether the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals correctly approved a multi-billion-dollar bankruptcy plan for Purdue Pharma, the maker of the highly addictive opioid painkiller OxyContin, that would release members of the Sackler family, which owned the company but did not declare bankruptcy, from any future liability for claims against them," said MSNBC legal analyst Katie Phang on X.
"Essentially, the bankruptcy agreement was a s---ty deal," The Nation's Elie Mystal posted on X. "But it was also the best deal available for the victims of the Sackler family."
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UGA Law School Professor Elizabeth Chamblee Burch wrote on X, "The "Sackler family cannot glom onto Purdue's bankruptcy, rules a divided Supreme Court, with the majority echoing arguments" she and other legal experts made.
"What happens next? Sacklers will likely try to negotiate consensual releases in the bankruptcy or return to [multidistrict litigation]," she explained.
National security lawyer Bradley Moss called the ruling "good" and added that courts should not "let the Sackler family off the hook."
Vox reporter Andew Prokop pointed out the strange bedfellows: with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson siding with the conservatives and Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts joining liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
"Kav's dissent being extremely impassioned and saying the decision will cause 'opioid victims' to 'suffer greatly,'" Prokop wrote.
Sarah Reese Jones pointed out that the Court is in agreement with President Joe Biden's administration, which also rejected the settlement by saying that people deserve the right to sue the company.
"The Sackler family deserves a life of poverty after what they wrought," wrote American Independent political reporter Emily C. Singer.
"Best decision SCOTUS has made in a while. Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family took advantage of American families. They knew how dangerous OxyContin was, and a generation of opioid-addicted folk, many of whom turned to street drugs when Oxy wasn't in reach, many more died," said Democratic strategist Ameshia Cross.
NYU Professor Eric Klinenberg joked that the Sackler family made a huge mistake "not providing Thomas and Alito with private jets or vacation homes."
