In a case that may allow thousands of Vietnam War veterans to bring litigation against chemical companies that made the defoliant Agent Orange, three Supreme Court justices suggested that Dow Chemical Co.'s and Monsanto Co.'s 1984 settlement does not bar veterans who developed cancer later in life from filing lawsuits. Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter argued that money should have been held over for "late blooming claims" and had reservations about the legality of the 1994 deadline.

The $180 million class action settlement had foreclosed the possibility of individual lawsuits against more than a dozen companies that made the product, including Dow and Monsanto. The settlement paid veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange and then died or became ill before 1994.

Plaintiffs Joe Isaacson and Daniel Stephenson, however, were diagnosed with cancer after the 1994 deadline--Isaacson in 1998 with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and Stephenson the same year with bone marrow cancer. Before their case was presented to the Supreme Court, an appeals court ruled that the veterans were not "adequately represented" in the 1984 settlement and could file another suit.