The Supreme Court’s ruling shielding the maker of Roundup weed killer from cancer lawsuits is the latest in a string of decisions that the Make America Healthy Again coalition says could cost Republicans at the ballot box in November.
In a 7-2 ruling Thursday, the nation’s highest bench — at the encouragement of the Trump administration — agreed with Bayer that federal law blocks Roundup users from claiming in state court that the company failed to warn customers that glyphosate, the product’s active ingredient, could lead them to develop cancer.
The Supreme Court’s decision closed the door to thousands of failure-to-warn lawsuits in state courts across the country, including one that resulted in a $1.25 million jury verdict for a Missouri resident who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after using Roundup for decades.
“Today’s devastating SCOTUS decision was enabled by the Trump administration, which chose the profits of foreign pesticide manufacturers over the health of American citizens including children who will grow up sick from exposure to toxic chemicals,” said Kelly Ryerson, a MAHA influencer known online as “Glyphosate Girl.”
“It is unforgivable,” she continued. “We will make sure all voters know exactly how this domestic chemical attack happened.”
It’s far from MAHA’s first disappointment related to pesticides. The movement’s fury converged in a protest outside of the Supreme Court in April when the justices heard oral arguments for the case.
President Donald Trump earlier this year signed an executive order on the critical importance of glyphosate to U.S. food supply, invoking protections under the Defense Production Act, after multiple meetings with top Bayer officials and an aggressive marketing campaign from the agrichemical giant.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former environmental attorney who brought claims against Roundup manufacturer Monsanto over alleged cancer risks, said at the time he disagreed with Trump’s order. (Bayer acquired Monsanto in 2018.)
Glyphosate was one of two pesticides singled out in the interagency MAHA Commission’s report last spring outlining the factors likely driving childhood chronic disease. But a second report released months later is far more agreeable to the pesticide review process, a softer approach that MAHA advocates have declared the result of corporate capture.
EPA is expected to release a revised evaluation of the weed killer’s health risks this fall but so far has maintained there is “no evidence that glyphosate causes cancer in humans,” its website says.
Vani Hari, a food blogger with close ties to Kennedy, in a post on the social media site X called the Supreme Court’s decision a “devastating blow” before shifting the focus to ongoing battles in Congress over including liability shields for pesticide manufacturers in the farm bill.
“This is a defining moment. Every elected official now has a choice: stand with families harmed by toxic chemicals or stand with the corporations that profit from them,” Hari wrote in the post.
The decision also ignited fury from Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who recently lost his primary bid to a Trump-backed opponent. The lawmaker on Thursday took to social media to call for the Roundup decision to be corrected.
“SCOTUS rules Monsanto/Bayer can’t be sued for omitting a warning even if their herbicides do cause cancer,” Massie wrote in a post on X. “Even if the legal reasoning of the court is sound in this case, it’s a blatant travesty of justice. Congress and the President can fix this and we absolutely should.”
The Roundup ruling also broke the Supreme Court along non-ideological lines. Joining Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the majority were liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, dissented.
Bayer CEO Bill Anderson said in a statement following the Supreme Court’s ruling that the decision is “good for American farmers who help feed the world” and provides regulatory certainty.
“This litigation has enormous costs for the company and has impacted public trust,” Anderson said. “The decision brings overdue justice on an issue that should have been clarified much earlier. It’s time to put it behind us.”
Bayer said it expects the ruling to contain the Roundup litigation after decades of slugging it out in the courts and noted that Monsanto is continuing to pursue final approval of a $7.25 billion class-action settlement to resolve glyphosate cancer claims.
Christopher Seeger, proposed class counsel in the settlement, decried the court’s decision.
“This Supreme Court ruling wrongly slams the courthouse door on Americans sickened by pesticides, and underscores why we negotiated a $7.25 billion settlement that guarantees compensation to Roundup victims regardless of today’s decision,” he said in a statement. “We urge those opposing this agreement … to drop their opposition so that tens of thousands of cancer victims no longer have to wait for justice after a decade of delay.”
Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.
