SCOTUS Rejects Prop 12 Case, Seeks Government View on Roundup

By Ryan Hanrahan

Progressive Farmer’s Todd Neeley reported that “the Supreme Court on Monday denied an Iowa Pork Producers Association petition on California’s Proposition 12. The petition came about after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit last year rejected the IPPA’s constitutional challenge to the law.”

“Prop 12 makes it a criminal offense and civil violation to sell whole pork meat in California unless the pig it comes from is born to a sow that was housed within 24 square feet of space and in conditions that allow a sow to turn around without touching an enclosure,” Neeley reported. “Proposition 12 applies to any uncooked pork sold in the state, regardless of whether it was raised in California.”

“In January 2025, 23 states joined the Iowa Pork Producers Association in an appeal to the Supreme Court challenging Prop 12. The challenge stems from a previous Supreme Court ruling on the case, which determined California’s law does not violate the Commerce Clause,” Neeley reported.

The Des Moines Register’s Maureen Groppe and Donnelle Eller reported that “the court did not explain why it rejected the challenge. Justice Brett Kavanaugh said he would have taken the Iowa case. The Iowa Pork Producers Association and elected leaders said they were disappointed with the decision. ‘This mandate on Iowa hog farmers increases pork prices for families, makes hog farming needlessly more expensive, harms our rural communities, and threatens our food security,’ said U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, a Republican weighing a gubernatorial run, in a statement Monday.

SCOTUS Seeks Government View in Bayer Roundup Case

Bloomberg’s Jef Feeley reported Monday that “the U.S. Supreme Court signaled interest in Bayer AG’s bid to stop thousands of lawsuits blaming its top-selling Roundup weedkiller for causing cancer, seeking the Trump administration’s view on whether to hear the company’s appeal of a $1.25 million verdict.”

“Bayer contends a 2023 Missouri state-court jury that sided with a man who blamed Roundup for his cancer shouldn’t have weighed a claim that the company failed to properly warn consumers about the product’s health risks. Bayer says such claims are preempted by federal law,” Feeley reported. “Bayer argues in its appeal that so-called ‘failure to warn’ claims brought in state court were precluded by the US Environmental Protection Agency’s decision not to force Bayer to put a cancer warning on Roundup. The company hopes a ruling in its favor would shield it from more cancer suits.”

“‘We see this request as an encouraging step and look forward to hearing the views of the government,’ Bayer Chief Executive Officer Bill Anderson said in a prepared statement,” Feeley reported. “‘When courts permit companies to be punished under state law for following federal law, it makes companies like ours a prime target of the litigation industry and threatens farmers and innovations that patients and consumers need for their nutrition and health,’ Anderson said.”

“The Supreme Court directed its request for input to US Solicitor General D. John Sauer, the Trump administration’s top courtroom lawyer,” Feeley reported. “The request came in the case of John Durnell, who convinced a St. Louis jury his use of Roundup caused his non-Hodgkins lymphoma.”

Progressive Farmer’s Todd Neeley reported that “agriculture groups have joined in Bayer’s petition, filing amicus briefs with the court. That includes briefs from the American Farm Bureau Federation, American Soybean Association, American Sugarbeet Growers, National Association of Wheat Growers, National Corn Growers Association, National Cotton Council of America, National Sorghum Producers and CropLife America.”

“Once the solicitor general offers its views of the case, the Supreme Court would then decide on the petition during the 2025-2026 court session,” Neeley reported. “If the case is accepted, the court could still decide on the merits of petition during the next session that ends in June 2026.”

Bayer Has Spent Billions on Roundup Settlements

Reuters’ Diana Novak Jones reported that Bayer “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. 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.”

“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 March.”

SCOTUS Rejects Prop 12 Case, Seeks Government View on Roundup was originally published by Farmdoc.