The justices struggled to decide whether to give a thumbs up or thumbs down to the multi-billion dollar Purdue Pharma bankruptcy deal--a deal meant to compensate victims of OxyContin.
Under the deal, Purdue agreed it owed $8 billion in criminal and civil fines. That deal is at the center of Monday's case because it releases the Sacklers from personal liability.
Climate groups like Just Stop Oil are making headlines for targeting famous works of art in their fossil fuel protests. It's a tactic that other individuals and groups have used over the last century.
The Sacklers, who own Purdue Pharma, maker of Oxycontin, have maintained they did nothing wrong. People who lost loved ones and years of their lives to opioid addiction believe otherwise.
Under the latest proposal, the Sacklers would contribute between $5.5 billion and $6 billion, an increase from the $4.3 billion they had agreed to earlier.
People who were addicted to OxyContin or lost loved ones who were addicted to the drug expect very little in compensation from the multibillion-dollar Purdue Pharma bankruptcy settlement.
The DOJ is seeking to block implementation of any part of the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy deal until legal challenges are settled. The deal granted Sackler family members immunity from opioid lawsuits.
The decision by a federal bankruptcy judge grants members of the family who own Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, sweeping protection from any liability for the opioid crisis.
In the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy trial now underway, scrutiny has focused on the Sacklers' demand for immunity from opioid lawsuits that would extend to a vast network of individuals and businesses.
The Purdue Pharma bankruptcy process has focused on financial compensation to creditors, but court records include heartrending personal letters from families ravaged by Oxycontin.
Two divisions of the DOJ argue the deal improperly shelters members of the Sackler family and their associates from liability. States are finalizing a separate deal with other opioid companies.
Massachusetts and New York are among the states agreeing to end the fight to halt a controversial Purdue Pharma bankruptcy plan. The deal shelters members of the Sackler family from opioid lawsuits.
A bankruptcy judge cleared a plan for final vote by creditors of Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, that would release the Sacklers and their financial empire from liability for the opioid crisis.
Under a bankruptcy procedure prohibited by courts in part of the country, the Sacklers could be sheltered from opioid lawsuits even without declaring bankruptcy. Some states are crying foul.
Two dozen states had hoped to sue the owners of Purdue Pharma for their alleged role in the opioid crisis. But a federal bankruptcy has judge put the brakes on — again — until April 21.
