A federal judge will hear arguments against a deal negotiated by the Department of Justice to dismiss felony charges against Boeing over a pair of deadly 737 Max crashes.

Families of victims from the crashes will plead their case in U.S. District Court in Texas on September 3, the Associated Press reports. If the deal is approved, Boeing will avoid criminal charges, and instead pay families $445.5 million, and invest another $455 million in improvements to regulatory compliance and safety. In June, a lawyer representing 16 families had called the proposed deal "morally repugnant," asserting that it would allow Boeing to sidestep accountability.

Federal prosecutors previously alleged that Boeing had deceived regulators about the flight system believed to have caused the two crashes in 2018 and 2019 respectively. The company avoided criminal prosecution by agreeing to a $2.5 billion settlement with the DOJ in 2021, and to make sweeping changes to its safety procedures. The DOJ ruled that Boeing had violated that deal in May 2024, following a probe into a January 2024 door plug blowout aboard a 737 Max, that uncovered widespread safety and quality control lapses throughout the planemaker's production processes.

In June 2024, the company agreed to plead guilty to the original fraud charges, pay a $243.6 million fine, invest $455 million in safety improvements, and allow an independent monitor to oversee its quality control for three years. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Reed O'Connor rejected that plea deal in March 2025, citing concerns over how diversity, equity and inclusion policies would factor into the process to pick the monitor. The DOJ and Boeing announced that they had reached a new non-prosecution agreement a month later, pending final approval from Judge O'Connor, who will decide on whether to allow prosecutors to dismiss the charges against Boeing after families address the court on September 3.