STORY: The U.S. Supreme Court appeared divided on Monday over an effort by pesticides maker Bayer to shut down thousands of lawsuits accusing the company of failing to warn users that the active ingredient in its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer.
The justices heard arguments in the German company's appeal of a jury verdict in Missouri state court awarding $1.25 million to a man named John Durnell, who said he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma after years of exposure to glyphosate in Roundup.
Bayer has said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has repeatedly found that glyphosate does not cause cancer and approved its product labels without a warning.
Several farming and agricultural industry groups are backing Bayer in the case as well as U.S. President Donald Trump.
"The Trump administration has tried to walk a fine line..."
That's Reuters agriculture and energy policy reporter Leah Douglas, who was outside the Supreme Court on Monday at a Make America Healthy Again rally.
"Many MAHA activists oppose using pesticides because of what they describe as health risks."
Douglas says MAHA activists here said they expected the Trump administration to address the effects of pesticides, not side with Bayer.
KELLY ROBINSON, MAHA ACTIVIST, SAYING: "Many people came to vote for MAHA because of pesticides. // So, going to bat for Bayer and defending their immunity is not something that sits at all acceptably with the MAHA movement."
VANI HARI, MAHA ACTIVIST, SAYING: "I'm here today to say enough's enough. You cannot make America healthy again and protect the corporations that are poisoning us."
The dispute centers on a U.S. law called the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act that
prohibits pesticides that are "misbranded" with labels that lack an adequate warning to protect health and the environment.
The lawyer arguing for Bayer told the justices on Monday that the federal law should prevent failure-to-warn claims that are brought under state law from moving forward in court.
The justices appeared split along ideological as well as practical lines, with conservatives Roberts and Gorsuch skeptical of fully shielding Bayer from state lawsuits, questioning what recourse would exist if new evidence of harm emerged.
A Supreme Court ruling is expected by the end of June.
The outcome could determine the fate of more than 100,000 cases filed in U.S. state and federal courts alleging a cancer link, according to Bayer, which has said a ruling in its favor should largely bring the Roundup litigation to an end.
