Supreme Court erases shield protecting Sackler family from liability for opioid crisis

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a national settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma that had protected Sackler family members from future lawsuits.

In a 5-4 decision, the majority ruled that federal bankruptcy code does not allow a liability shield for third parties in bankruptcy agreements.

It affects a provision at the center of the $6 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma that gave money to deal with the opioid epidemic, and in exchange put in place a shield protecting Sackler family members from further lawsuits.

Thursday's ruling means the shield has been removed.

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In a dissent, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote the “decision is wrong on the law and devastating for more than 100,000 opioid victims and their families.” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan also dissented.

But Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote, "Surely, if Congress had meant to reshape traditional practice so profoundly in the present bankruptcy code, extending to courts the capacious new power the plan proponents claim, one might have expected it to say so expressly somewhere in the code itself."