Overview
- The Supreme Court, which ruled on Thursday, June 25, issued a 7-2 opinion overturning a Missouri jury’s $1.25 million award to John Durnell and holding that FIFRA preempts state failure-to-warn lawsuits about Roundup.
- Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that EPA-approved labels do not require a cancer warning and that state laws may not impose different labeling rules, while Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Neil Gorsuch dissented and said the majority misread the statute.
- The decision is expected to block or prompt dismissal of thousands of warning-based claims against Bayer and Monsanto, with news reports citing case counts ranging from more than 100,000 to roughly 180,000.
- Bayer welcomed the ruling and its shares jumped sharply, the Trump administration had filed a brief backing Bayer, and critics in the Make America Healthy Again movement and public-health groups condemned the loss of a court route for claimants.
- The ruling leaves room for other paths to relief—including Bayer’s proposed $7.25 billion settlement and non-label claims such as product-design suits—and keeps open the possibility of future legislative or judicial changes given the ongoing scientific debate over glyphosate.