Washington, D.C. — Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in pesticide manufacturer Bayer’s case Monsanto Company v. Durnell. Food & Water Watch and allies submitted an amicus brief in favor of Durnell earlier this month.

With the Trump administration’s repeated support, Bayer is seeking a ruling that would shield the corporation from lawsuits brought by cancer patients who allege its Roundup product was to blame for their disease. Such a ruling would effectively leave these patients without legal recourse. Meanwhile, Senator Cory Booker’s pending Pesticide Injury Accountability Act would enshrine the right to sue over pesticide harms.

In response, Food & Water Watch Legal Director Tarah Heinzen issued the following statement: 

“Monsanto Company v. Durnell will have enormous consequences for environmental health litigation. Bayer is intent on preserving its right to harm at all costs — a pursuit the Trump administration is all too willing to endorse. This case threatens to close the courthouse doors to the many Americans harmed by pesticides.

“Should the Supreme Court hold that the Environmental Protection Agency’s failed pesticide regulatory scheme preempts state failure to warn lawsuits, leaving tens of thousands of sick Americans without legal recourse, Trump and his industry-dominated EPA will be to blame. 

“This high stakes case should be a wakeup call for Congress to act. Industrial agriculture’s pesticide addiction is poisoning America. Congress must pass the Pesticide Injury Accountability Act to safeguard access to justice for all harmed by toxic pesticides.”

Since purchasing Monsanto in 2018, Bayer has spent over $11 billion settling over 100,000 cancer lawsuits related to Roundup, whose active ingredient glyphosate the World Health Organization defines as a probable carcinogen. A recent Food & Water Watch analysis finds that high glyphosate use is correlated with elevated rates of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer, particularly in the upper Midwest where the majority of glyphosate is used on field crops.

Bayer is also pushing widely-opposed Cancer Gag Act bills nationwide, seeking to shield pesticide corporations from health-related lawsuits in multiple states. The corporation is behind a similar federal provision in the Farm Bill, currently awaiting a floor vote in the House of Representatives.