The Sacklers Did Not Get Away With It

A Divided Supreme Court Upends the Purdue Bankruptcy Plan

A 5-4 split Supreme Court delivered a little predicted - but much hoped for - decision today that rejected personal liability protection for the Sackler family owners and directors of Purdue Pharma. It was that much-contested provision that was at the heart of the multi-billion-dollar Purdue Bankruptcy plan.

Four conservative justices (Gorsuch, Thomas, Alito, and Barrett) were joined by Ketanji Brown Jackson in a bipartisan majority.

Today’s decision is a major corrected to the bankruptcy law that has long been abused, particularly by drug companies and their wealthy owners.

Gaming bankruptcy is nothing new for the pharmaceutical industry. The precedent was set in 1985 by the A.H. Robins Company, the manufacturer of the Dalkon Shield, an IUD contraceptive device. About 3.5 million women in dozens of countries had the Dalkon Shield. The FDA and Robins had started getting reports in 1970 of serious pelvic infections, blood poisonings, and a laundry list of gynecological complications. Ho…