When corporations write the rules, public safety isn’t guaranteed — just ask Monsanto

The Supreme Court’s recent 7-2 decision in favor of Monsanto should worry every American who cares about health, food, farming and basic fairness. The ruling does not just affect one chemical or company. It shows how powerful corporations can use government approval to avoid responsibility. 

For more than 20 years, John Durnell used Monsanto’s Roundup in parks around his St. Louis neighborhood. Then he developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A jury agreed that Monsanto failed to warn him about cancer risks and awarded him damages. 

Now the Supreme Court has sided with Monsanto. Because the Environmental Protection Agency approved Roundup’s label without a cancer warning, the court held that federal law preempts state failure-to-warn claims, which would require a different or additional warning.

That may sound narrow, but it raises a larger question: When a federal agency approves a product, can a corporation use that approval to block people from seeking justice? Monsanto argued yes. The court agreed, shifting power away from juries and states.  

The ruling does not prevent every lawsuit against pesticide companies, nor does it eliminate all state authority over pesticides. But it does limit injured people’s recourse under state failure-to-warn claims.

Government agencies should protect the public, but they are compromised by industry pressure and political interference, and often........

© The Hill