Supreme Court protects pesticides from some health claims in key Roundup case

The Supreme Court on Thursday restricted Americans’ ability to sue pesticide makers over alleged health harms stemming from their products.

In a 7-2 ruling, the court held that some claims that pesticide companies failed to warn users of their products’ health risks are blocked under federal law.

The ruling is a win for Bayer and Monsanto, whose oft-litigated Roundup weedkiller was at the center of the case. It’s also a win for the pesticide industry broadly. 

It’s a loss for plaintiffs who sue such companies and allege that they did not adequately warn of the health harms their products may contribute to, including plaintiff John Durnell, a cancer patient whose $1.25 million verdict was challenged by Monsanto in the case.

It’s also a blow to the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, which has united around the idea that these companies should not be shielded from liability.

The case is about whether people can bring state-level failure-to-warn claims for alleged health harms that........

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