I won't pretend to understand the intricate bankruptcy issues at play in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P. What I can tell you is that Justice Kavanaugh is very, very upset. Apart from the nuances of the legal issue, Justice Kavanaugh repeatedly expresses sympathy and concern for those affected by the opioid crisis. Here are a few highlights:
Today's decision is wrong on the law and devastating formore than 100,000 opioid victims and their families.
To be sure, many Americans have deep hostility toward the Sacklers.
The opioid victims and their families are deprived of their hard-won relief. And the communities devastated by the opioid crisis are deprived of the funding needed to help prevent and treat opioid addiction. As a result of the Court's decision, each victim and creditor receives the essential equivalent of a lottery ticket for a possible future recovery for (at most) a few of them. And as the Bankruptcy Court explained, without the non-debtor releases, there is no good reason to believe that any of the victims or state or local governments will ever recover anything. I respectfully but emphatically dissent.
Opioid victims and other future victims of mass torts will suffer greatly in the wake of today's unfortunate and destabilizing decision. Only Congress can fix the chaos that will now ensue. The Court's decision will lead to too much harm for too many people for Congress to sit by idly without at least carefully studying the issue. I respectfully dissent.
I'm reminded of a common W. Bushism, which Justice Kavanaugh often repeats–we should be on the sunrise side of the mountain, not the sunset side.
