The Supreme Court on Thursday sided against a Missouri man who claimed that the herbicide Roundup caused his cancer, backing an argument from the product’s manufacturer that the lawsuit should have been barred because the federal government does not require a cancer warning on the label.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion for a 7-2 court. Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Neil Gorsuch dissented.
The lawsuit at issue was filed by John Durnell, who became known as “spray man” in his St. Louis neighborhood for using Roundup in the parks around his home. Years later, after Durnell was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, he sued Monsanto, claiming his exposure to the pesticide was to blame. A jury awarded him $1.25 million.
But the decision could have implications for thousands of other lawsuits that have been filed against the company over its weedkiller. And it comes on an issue that has increasingly motivated President Donald Trump’s “Make America Healthy Again” supporters. Hundreds of people who support tighter regulations on pesticides turned out at the Supreme Court in early April when the case was argued, a far more significant crowd than most of this year’s appeals have drawn.
