3M can’t press pause on the largest multidistrict litigation in U.S. history via a bankruptcy filing by its subsidiary.

That’s essentially what U.S. Chief Bankruptcy Judge Jeffrey Graham in Indianapolis, who is overseeing the restructuring of 3M subsidiary Aearo Technologies, ruled this week in refusing to extend bankruptcy’s automatic stay on litigation to 3M. The ruling paves the way for hundreds of thousands of lawsuits to move forward on behalf of U.S. service members who claim the company’s combat arms earplugs were defective and led to hearing damage.