A Supreme Court battle over cancer claims and the labeling of the popular Roundup weedkiller is uniting two sides that do not always see eye to eye: Democratic and Republican attorneys general.
In separate briefs filed Wednesday at the court, the Republican-led states of Texas, Florida and Ohio and a Democratic-led coalition of states led by New Mexico are siding with a Missouri man who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after using Roundup for decades and won a $1.25 million verdict against the company.
In Monsanto v. Durnell, to be argued before the Supreme Court on April 27, Monsanto has sought to overturn the verdict — and potentially block others like it — on the grounds that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act prevents states from requiring a cancer warning on Roundup, since EPA has determined that the product does not pose a risk when used according to its label.
The Democratic coalition argues that federal regulation does not preempt state laws that protect public health and urges the court to find that federal law does not preempt state failure-to-warn claims.
