Supreme Court rules 7-2 for Bayer in Roundup label case
Why it matters: The ruling could wipe out thousands of state failure-to-warn suits over glyphosate and narrow Bayer's legal exposure.
The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that federal pesticide law blocks state-level claims accusing Monsanto of failing to warn that Roundup could cause cancer, handing Bayer a major victory in years of litigation over the weedkiller. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency authority over pesticide labels, so states cannot impose different warning requirements. The case was brought by Missouri resident John Durnell. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch, arguing that a cancer warning would not conflict with federal law. Bayer said the decision should lead to the dismissal of current warning-based claims and block future ones.