The Boy Scouts of America's $2.46 billion sex abuse settlement is facing new legal uncertainty as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs how far bankruptcy courts can go to protect non-debtors, a fact acknowledged on Tuesday by the judge overseeing the youth organization's bankruptcy, Reuters reported. Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Silverstein said at a court hearing in Wilmington, Del., that she would continue to hear disputes related to the Boy Scouts settlement without waiting for a Supreme Court decision in the case of Purdue Pharma. The drugmaker is seeking to resolve thousands of lawsuits related to its allegedly deceptive marketing of the addictive painkiller Oxycontin in bankruptcy. The high court agreed in August to hear a challenge by the Biden administration to the legality of Purdue's bankruptcy settlement, putting on hold a deal that would shield its wealthy Sackler family owners from lawsuits over their alleged roles in the country's opioid epidemic. They have denied wrongdoing. Abuse claimants opposed to the Boy Scouts' settlement on Friday had asked U.S. District Judge Richard Andrews to issue a stay that would stop the settlement from moving ahead until the Supreme Court ruling in Purdue, saying that the settlement should not cut off their ability to sue non-bankrupt organizations, such as churches who co-sponsored Scouting programs.
