Supreme Court blocks thousands of lawsuits over Roundup weedkiller

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 25 that thousands of people cannot sue the maker of Roundup, a popular weed killer, for failing to warn them it might cause cancer. The court voted 7–2 in favor of Bayer, the company that makes Roundup. The ruling means that people who got sick and believed Roundup was to blame cannot take their cases to court under state laws. The decision affects people across the country who had hoped to win money from the company.

Roundup's main ingredient is a chemical called glyphosate. The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, is the government agency that checks whether pesticides — chemicals used to kill weeds and bugs — are safe. The EPA has not decided that Roundup causes cancer, and it has not required the company to put a cancer warning on the label. Because the EPA approved the label without a warning, the Supreme Court said that people cannot use state laws to force the company to add one.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the main opinion for the seven justices who agreed. He explained that federal law requires Roundup to be sold with the label the EPA approved — a label that does not include a cancer warning. He said that a state lawsuit asking the company to add a cancer warning would go against what federal law allows. Two justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Neil Gorsuch, disagreed with the decision.

Justice Jackson said the ruling 'departs from the near unanimous view of the many state and federal courts' that had looked at the same question. She believed the majority made the wrong call by letting federal rules block state protections. Her dissent, which is the name for a written disagreement from a judge, argued that states should be able to offer stronger protections to their residents when federal rules fall short.

The case began with a man named John Durnell, who used Roundup for more than 20 years while working as the 'spray guy' for his neighborhood in St. Louis. He later developed a type of cancer called non-Hodgkin lymphoma and believed Roundup caused it. In 2023, a jury agreed and said the company owed him $1.25 million. But the Supreme Court's ruling now blocks him from collecting that money under state law.

Bayer, a large German company, bought Roundup's original maker, Monsanto, in 2018. Since then, Bayer has faced billions of dollars in possible payments from thousands of lawsuits about Roundup. Company CEO Bill Anderson said the ruling 'brings overdue justice on an issue that should have been clarified much earlier.' Bayer said the decision will help it greatly reduce the number of lawsuits it must fight.

Even though Bayer stopped using glyphosate in Roundup products sold to home gardeners, it still sells the chemical to farmers. The company warned that if lawsuits kept coming, it might have to stop selling glyphosate to U.S. farmers entirely. Farm groups said losing access to the chemical would be a 'devastating risk to America's food supply.' Many farmers rely on Roundup to protect their crops and keep costs down.

Not everyone was happy with the ruling. Health and environmental groups said the decision goes far beyond just Roundup. They warned it could block similar lawsuits about many other pesticides in the future. Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, said the case was really about whether states can protect their residents when the federal government does not do enough.

The Trump administration supported Bayer's side in the case, which upset some health advocates who want to cut down on pesticide use. Zen Honeycutt, founder of Moms Across America, called the ruling 'a travesty against the American Constitution.' She argued it gives foreign chemical companies protection from lawsuits that ordinary Americans deserve to bring. Several public health leaders said ordinary people are left without a way to hold big companies responsible.

The EPA is supposed to review glyphosate's safety every 15 years. But the most recent review is years late because a federal court in 2022 found that the EPA had not properly studied whether glyphosate causes cancer. One attorney who works with Roundup victims said the court 'has essentially handed Bayer a shield and told victims they have no recourse.' He noted that the EPA never declared Roundup safe — it only said cancer was 'not likely,' which is a very different statement.