Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P.
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 27, 2024 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- June 27, 2024
- Term
- October Term 2023
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Gorsuch
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2023 1 Syllabus NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321 , 337. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Syllabus HARRINGTON, UNITED STATES TRUSTEE, REGION 2 v. PURDUE PHARMA L. P. ET AL. CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT No. 23–124. Argued December 4, 2023—Decided June 27, 2024 Between 1999 and 2019, approximately 247,000 people in the United States died from prescription-opioid overdoses. Respondent Purdue Pharma sits at the center of that crisis. Owned and controlled by the Sackler family, Purdue began marketing OxyContin, an opioid pre- scription pain reliever, in the mid-1990s. After Purdue earned billions of dollars in sales on the drug, in 2007 one of its affiliates pleaded guilty to a federal felony for misbranding OxyContin as a less-addic- tive, less-abusable alternative to other pain medications. Thousands of lawsuits followed. Fearful that the litigation would eventually im- pact them directly, the Sacklers initiated a “milking program,” with- drawing from Purdue approximately $11…
Excerpt of a 156,121-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.