The Supreme Court cleared the way on Thursday for a $2.4 billion plan to settle sex abuse lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of America to go forward.
The court’s brief, unsigned order gave no reasons, which is typical for emergency applications. There were no public dissents.
A group of victims had asked the court to pause the plan as the justices consider an opioid settlement against Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, and the members of the wealthy Sackler family who owned it, because that deal raised similar issues.
Like the Purdue Pharma deal, the Boy Scouts agreement was settled in bankruptcy court using a contentious mechanism that insulates a third party from future lawsuits even without requiring that party to declare bankruptcy.
In the instance of Purdue Pharma, that effectively shields members of the Sackler family from liability in future opioid-related lawsuits.
The Boy Scouts settlement involves more than 82,000 claims of childhood sexual abuse, with more than 86 percent of victims in the case backing the deal.
However, the group who asked the Supreme Court to intervene objected to the use of the mechanism, which protected from liability third parties like churches involved in scouting, local councils and insurers.
The outcome in the Boy Scouts case had been closely watched as a possible clue of where the justices might lean in Purdue Pharma. During oral arguments in December, the justices appeared divided, and a decision in that case is expected by the end of the court’s term, likely in late June.
The victims’ group, in asking the court to step in, argued that if the settlement were allowed to proceed, sexual abuse victims “will lose their right to pursue their claims independently of the bankruptcy settlement trust.”
The Boy Scouts had argued that the settlement should continue as planned, warning that if the justices blocked the deal, it would “threaten to throw the scouting program into chaos.”
The challengers represented “a tiny fraction” of the victims involved in the deal, the Boy Scouts said.
After Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. temporarily paused the settlement earlier this month, the bankruptcy judge overseeing the case suspended work on the deal, which has already paid about $8 million to several thousand victims.
On Thursday, after the court announced its decision, the trust handling the settlement said it had “resumed all operations, including processing and paying claims.”
