Monsanto petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a critical defense that could wipe out thousands of lawsuits over Roundup: whether federal law preempts claims that it failed to warn about the pesticide’s cancer risks.
Friday’s filing marks the third petition for writ of certiorari that Monsanto, owned by Bayer, has filed before the Supreme Court to address whether the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act preempts failure-to-warn claims in Roundup cases. In 2022, the Supreme Court denied review of two prior petitions in Roundup cases, both in California. The first, in federal court, ended in a verdict of $80 million, which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2021 affirmed but reduced to $25.3 million. The second, in Alameda County Superior Court, resulted in a jury award of $2 billion, which the California Supreme Court declined to review.