In re Nat’l Opiate Prescrip. Litig.
RCFP and a coalition of 36 media organizations filed an amicus brief in support of HD Media Company and the Washington Post in In re National Prescription Opiate Litigation in the Sixth Circuit. The brief urged the Sixth Circuit to vacate the district court’s protective order, which bars hundreds of public entity plaintiffs in a multi-district litigation from disclosing key historical opiate prescription data that they received from the Drug Enforcement Administration during discovery. In this litigation, approximately 1,300 mostly governmental entities–including at least six states and hundreds of cities, counties, and Native American tribes–have sued the pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies for their role in the national prescription opiate crisis.