The American Tort Reform Association today issued a statement on yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Monsanto v. Durnell, from ATRA’s vice president and counsel for civil justice policy, Lauren Sheets Jarrell:
“This week, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a decisive victory for sound science and the rule of law. In Monsanto v. Durnell, the court held that federal law preempts state-court claims demanding a cancer warning on Roundup that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency never approved — and refused to approve because it would contradict the agency’s own findings.
“For years, the plaintiffs’ bar has weaponized a discredited classification to extract billions from a product that federal scientists repeatedly have found safe. ATRA’s amicus brief urged the court to recognize that herbicide labeling should rest on a comprehensive scientific evaluation, not on a single outlier study from the International Agency for Research on Cancer — a classification built on hazard identification alone and shaped by a paid consultant for the very lawyers who stood to profit. This week, the justices saw through it.
“This ruling makes it clear that state juries cannot punish manufacturers for utilizing the exact label required by the EPA. As the Court aptly noted in its opinion, the plaintiff’s state tort claim would impose a pesticide labeling requirement ‘in addition to or different from’ the label required by EPA, meaning that federal law expressly preempts the state tort claim.
“Make no mistake about what was at stake. American families already pay a hidden ‘tort tax’ of $5,579 a year because of excessive litigation. When trial lawyers manufacture fear with made-for-litigation science, consumers foot the bill through higher prices and needless confusion. This decision is a win for every family that deserves honest, science-based information about the products in their homes.
“The Supreme Court reaffirmed a principle that should never have been in doubt: product warnings must reflect rigorous scientific evaluation — not the litigation strategy of the trial bar.”
For more information, visit atra.org to access ATRA’s report, “The Junk Science Playbook” and ATRA’s amicus brief.
