MAHA Movement Scores a Concession From EPA Chief as Supreme Court Hears Glyphosate Lawsuit

As a Republican-led farm bill that would curb lawsuits against the makers of pesticides moves a step closer to a House vote, the Supreme Court is weighing an appeal from the makers of Roundup, who are urging the court to rule that an Environmental Protection Agency stamp of approval is enough to shield them from cancer lawsuits blamed on the weedkiller. Protesters from the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, coalition rallied outside the high court Monday as justices inside heard arguments in Monsanto v. Durnell, a long-adjudicated case over whether people can sue Bayer for illnesses attributed to Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate. Hundreds of epidemiological and toxicological studies conclude glyphosate is likely carcinogenic. More than 100,000 plaintiffs across the country have sought to hold Bayer, the German agroindustry and biomedical conglomerate that bought Monsanto in 2018, liable for not warning users that glyphosate causes cancer.The case in front of the Supreme Court involves a Missouri man who sued Monsanto after developing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A jury awarded him $1.25 million. Bayer wants the verdict overturned and the justices to establish that the company cannot be sued for failing to add a cancer warning the EPA did not require.The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act regulates the use, sale, and labeling of pesticides. For decades, the EPA has exercised its authority under that act to conclude that Roundup and glyphosate does not cause cancer in humans. It has repeatedly approved Roundup’s label without a warning. The company says it is prohibited from making any substantive change to an EPA-approved label without the agency’s permission. As such, it should not be open to lawsuits submitted in state courts. The attorney for the petitioner, Ashley Keller, argued that the EPA overstepped its regulatory power. One remedy for its overreach would be to allow state courts to hear warning label cases.Bayer has already paid out a reported $11 billion in claims. The company is proposing a $7.25 billion class-action settlement to end remaining litigation.Representative Chellie Pingree of Maine, who joined protesters outside the courthouse, said Bayer would not have paid $11 billion so far if “there’s nothing to worry about.” An organic farmer herself, she and Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky have introduced legislation called the “No Immunity for Glyphosate Act,” which would enable injured parties to seek relief.The proposed bill came in response to a February executive order signed by President Trump that would shield Monsanto from lawsuits in the name of national security. The order undergirds the 2026 farm bill, a five-year Republican-led effort to modernize the nation’s nutritional assistance, agricultural policy, and food safety programs, and which includes provisions that would block consumers and farmers harmed by pesticides from suing companies over inadequate safety labeling. The bill also repeals state and local jurisdiction over food safety and claws back safety statutes intended to protect animals and humans from pesticides.The executive order enraged MAHA activists, who were dismayed when their champion, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, who was part of a legal team that won a $289 million verdict against Monsanto in 2018, defended the administration’s actions.Several justices sounded sympathetic to the company’s argument that it can’t be sued under state laws. Others questioned whether blocking the suits would wrongly stop states from responding to new research. “Throughout that long process, in response to information that suggests there is a risk that’s not on the label, the states cannot do anything?” asked Chief Justice John Roberts. EPA labeling review comes just once every 15 years, a long stretch in the current era of biotechnology and agro-engineering. At an Appropriations Committee hearing on the EPA budget Monday, Administrator Lee Zeldin pledged that a separate review by career staffers of thousands of studies on glyphosate and other desiccants used in harvesting crops would be completed this year. He also offered an olive branch to MAHA supporters, saying that the EPA is looking to earmark $30 million for a prize challenge for organizations to spur the development of cost-effective alternatives to glyphosate. “There are a number of topics that have been massively enhanced by the strong, passionate voices of MAHA activists. They are the ones who put it all over our radar,” he said. “That’s why we included it in our budget.”However, in a contentious exchange, with Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, who held up a cup and shook it as if it were full of glyphosate, Mr. Zeldin responded to acknowledged that at certain exposure level, glyphosate is not safe.“If your cup was filled with glyphosate I’m telling you, as administrator of the EPA, don’t drink it. Don’t drink it, don’t inject it,” he said. “Maybe you should try doing that,” Ms. DeLauro responded.A ruling is expected from the court in early July.

MAHA Movement Scores a Concession From EPA Chief as Supreme Court Hears Glyphosate Lawsuit

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