Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,
The U.S. Supreme Court scheduled oral argument in Monsanto’s appeal seeking to block thousands of lawsuits alleging the company failed to warn consumers that Roundup, its popular weedkiller, could cause cancer.
The courtannouncedon Feb. 11 that it will hear Monsanto Co. v. Durnell on April 27.
The justices also scheduled arguments in two other high-profile cases.
Chatrie v. United States, which is about the constitutionality of search warrants that collect the location history of cellphone users near crime scenes, will also be heard on April 27.
The court will hear the consolidated cases of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) v. AT&T and Verizon Communications v. FCC together on April 21. The cases are about whether provisions in the federal Communications Act of 1934 allowing the FCC to use in-house adjudications to levy penalties are constitutional.
In the Monsanto case, a juryruledfor John Durnell, a Missouri man who allegedly developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after exposure to Roundup.The jury found Monsanto liable for failing to warn Durnell of the danger posed by the ingredient glyphosate and awarded him $1.25 million in damages. Glyphosate is an herbicide that kills weeds and grasses.
A state appeals court upheld the jury’s finding of liability, and the Missouri Supreme Court declined to take up the matter.Many other lawsuits have been filed across the United States alleging that Roundup caused medical problems.
Missouri has not issued an official health warning about Roundup, and Monsanto has been unsuccessful in lobbying the Missouri Legislature to shield it from state-level failure-to-warn lawsuits. In 2015, an agency within the World Health Organization (WHO) classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rejected that conclusion, but in 2017, California accepted the WHO agency’s finding and categorized glyphosate as a chemical that causes cancer.
Monsanto, which was purchased in 2018 by biotechnology and pharmaceutical giant Bayer, argues that a federal law governing the labeling of pesticides preempts—or overrides—any state lawsuits.
Source: ZeroHedge News
