Supreme Court Will Hear Bayer’s Roundup Liability Case

Progressive Farmer’s Todd Neeley reported that “the U.S. Supreme Court decided Friday it will hear a Bayer Roundup case that could bring product-liability lawsuits to a close on the glyphosate-based weed killer.”

“Bayer argued the Supreme Court should hear Monsanto Company v John L. Durnell to resolve a split among lower courts on whether federal labeling laws preempt state labeling laws, while attorneys for the non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma patient Durnell contended there was not a lower-court split,” Neeley reported. “Last summer the Missouri Court of Appeals joined the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Ninth and 11th circuits and state appellate courts in California and Oregon in holding that federal law does not preempt state laws. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled the opposite in another case, according to Bayer’s filing.”

“Bayer touted the news as an important decision for U.S. agriculture,” Neeley reported. “‘The Supreme Court decision to take the case is good news for U.S. farmers, who need regulatory clarity,’ Bayer CEO Bill Anderson said in a statement. ‘It’s also an important step in our multi-pronged strategy to significantly contain this litigation. It is time for the U.S. legal system to establish that companies should not be punished under state laws for complying with federal warning label requirements.'”

Agri-Pulse’s Steve Davies reported that “the case is expected to draw interest from an array of business, environmental and other groups. No argument date has been set. In a news release, Bayer said it expects a decision by June 2026.”

Trump Administration Recently Backed Bayer’s Bid to Curtail Lawsuits

Reuters’ Diana Novak Jones reported in early December that “President Donald Trump’s administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to take up Bayer’s bid to curtail thousands of lawsuits claiming its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer.”

“In a brief filed at the court, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer bolstered Bayer’s effort to limit the lawsuits and potentially avert billions of dollars in damages, saying the company was correct that the federal law governing pesticides preempts lawsuits that make claims over the products under state law,” Novak Jones reported.

Bayer Still Faces Thousands of Lawsuits

Novak Jones reported in a different article that “Bayer is facing similar claims from approximately 65,000 plaintiffs in U.S. state and federal courts. Roundup is among the most widely used weedkillers in the United States.”

“The company has paid about $10 billion to settle most of the Roundup lawsuits that were pending as of 2020, but failed to get a settlement covering future cases,” Novak Jones reported. “New lawsuits have continued to pour in since then. Plaintiffs have said they developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other forms of cancer due to using Roundup, either at home or on the job.”

The U.S. Supreme Court today announced that it will review the Durnell Roundup case. The company expects a decision on the merits during the Court’s 2026 session, which ends in June.

Link to press release: https://t.co/tEu0S6L7HJ

— Bayer U.S. 🇺🇸 (@BayerUS) January 16, 2026

“Bayer, which acquired Roundup as part of its $63 billion purchase of agrochemical company Monsanto in 2018, has said that decades of studies have shown Roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate, are safe for human use,” Novak Jones reported. “…The company has had a mixed record at trial in the Roundup lawsuits. Bayer has prevailed in a series of Roundup trials, but it was also hit with large jury awards in the past few years, including a $2.1 billion verdict in a case in the U.S. state of Georgia in 2025.”

“Bayer has asked the Supreme Court to consider the Roundup litigation before, but was rebuffed in 2022. Since then, one federal appeals court agreed with the company in a split from other appeals courts,” Novak Jones reported. “Bayer has threatened to withdraw Roundup from the U.S. market as it fights the litigation. The company replaced glyphosate in U.S. consumer products with different weed-killing substances.”