Alito pauses $2.46 billion Boy Scouts abuse settlement amid appeal

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito temporarily paused the Boy Scouts of America’s $2.46 billion settlement following decades of sexual abuse, after a group appealed.

Alito issued a brief Friday freezing the settlement “pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court.” It will allow the court more time to decide the request by claimants to block the settlement from going forward.

The group argued in the appeal that the settlement deal stops it from pursuing lawsuits against organizations that are not bankrupt.

A District Court in Delaware rejected arguments last March that the more than $2 billion bankruptcy plan for the organization wasn’t proposed in good faith, The Associated Press reported.

More than 80,000 men have filed claims with the Texas-based organization saying they were abused as children by leaders across the country.

A federal judge upheld the plan and cleared the way for the settlement to continue, until Alito stepped in Friday.

Doug Kennedy, an abuse survivor who led the group that appealed, told Reuters that the delay was a “horrible” result. He said survivors have already waited decades for their abuse to be addressed.

The Boy Scouts of America urged the Supreme Court not to stop the settlement from moving forward and said a delay could affect the organization’s scouting program and ability to carry out its mission, the news wire reported.

The organization has described the deal as a “carefully calibrated compromise” in which the organization itself would only contribute less than 10 percent to the settlement. A majority of the money would come from its largest insurers.

The Boy Scouts of America organization sought bankruptcy protection in February 2020 when it was named in at least 275 lawsuits.

The settlement would provide liability releases protecting insurance companies, local scout councils and troop-sponsoring organizations from future sex abuse lawsuits in exchange for contributing money to the fund, the AP reported.

Claimants appealing the settlement agreement argued that a pause was necessary due to a Friday deadline by which they had to decide whether they wanted to opt in to a more thorough review of their claims, according to Reuters.

The Associated Press contributed.