Cite as: 538 U. S. 314 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
true nature of the debt." Ibid.; accord, Grogan v. Garner, 498 U. S. 279, 290 (1991) (assuming that the Bankruptcy Code seeks to "permit exception from discharge of all fraud claims creditors have successfully reduced to judgment"). If we substitute the word "settlement" for the word "judgment," the Court's statement describes this case.
Finally, the Court's basic reasoning in Brown applies here. The Court pointed out that the Bankruptcy Code's nondischargeability provision had originally covered "only 'judgments' sounding in fraud." 442 U. S., at 138. Congress later changed the language so that it covered all such " 'liabilities.' " Ibid. This change indicated that "Congress intended the fullest possible inquiry" to ensure that "all debts arising out of" fraud are "excepted from discharge," no matter what their form. Ibid.; see also 11 U. S. C. § 523(a) (cur-rent "any debt" language). Congress also intended to allow the relevant determination (whether a debt arises out of fraud) to take place in bankruptcy court, not to force it to occur earlier in state court at a time when nondischargeability concerns "are not directly in issue and neither party has a full incentive to litigate them." Brown, 442 U. S., at 134.
The only difference we can find between Brown and the present case consists of the fact that the relevant debt here is embodied in a settlement, not in a stipulation and consent judgment. But we do not see how that difference could prove determinative. The dischargeability provision applies to all debts that "aris[e] out of" fraud. Id., at 138; see also Cohen v. de la Cruz, 523 U. S. 213, 215 (1998). A debt embodied in the settlement of a fraud case "arises" no less "out of" the underlying fraud than a debt embodied in a stipulation and consent decree. Policies that favor the settlement of disputes, like those that favor "repose," are neither any more nor any less at issue here than in Brown. See 442 U. S., at 133-135. In Brown, the doctrine of res judicata itself ensured "a blanket release" of the underlying claim of fraud, just as the contractual releases did here, post, at 324.
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