Public Health — News & Analysis

Supreme Court Shields Bayer From Roundup Failure-to-Warn Lawsuits (June 25, 2026)

June 25, 2026 — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 on Thursday that Bayer cannot be sued in state courts over claims that its Roundup weedkiller failed to warn users of cancer risk, a decision expected to block tens of thousands of pending lawsuits.

The case arose from Missouri resident John Durnell, who developed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma after more than two decades spraying Roundup in his neighborhood's parks and was awarded $1.25 million by a Missouri jury in 2019, a verdict a state appeals court had affirmed. Writing for the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh held that because the Environmental Protection Agency has repeatedly approved Roundup's label without a cancer warning, a state-law requirement forcing Bayer to add one is preempted by the federal Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Justices Neil Gorsuch and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, with Jackson writing that the majority broke from the near-unanimous view of state and federal courts that had previously rejected this preemption theory.

The decision is a major win for the Trump administration, which backed Bayer's position, but creates friction with allies in the "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) movement who have pushed to restrict pesticide use. Bayer's stock jumped more than 15% following the ruling, which the company said should result in dismissal of pending failure-to-warn claims among the roughly 200,000 Roundup-related claims filed against it; Bayer said it will still pursue its proposed $7.25 billion class-action settlement to resolve remaining cases. Critics denounced the outcome — attorney Christopher Seeger, a proposed claimants' representative in the settlement, said the ruling "wrongly slams the courthouse door on Americans sickened by pesticides," while Earthjustice senior attorney Patti Goldman argued that EPA approval of a label should not shield companies that fail to warn about cancer and other health risks.

Consolidated from multiple sources.