The United States Supreme Court will decide if two Vietnam veterans can continue their lawsuit against several chemical companies over exposure to Agent Orange. A $180 million 1984 class action settlement had foreclosed the possibility of individual lawsuits against more than a dozen companies that made the product, including Dow Chemical Co. and Monsanto Co. The settlement paid veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange and then died or became ill before 1994.

But plaintiffs Joe Isaacson and Daniel Stephenson 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 the 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. Several new lawsuits may emerge if the high court rules in favor of the plaintiffs.