PRESS RELEASE
April 2, 2026
Contact: James Bopp, Jr.
Cell Phone 812-243-0825; Phone 812-232-2434; Fax 812-235-3685; [email protected]

For more information: Leah Wilson 317-833-4181; [email protected]

Stand for Health Freedom Urges the U.S. Supreme Court Not to Trade Americans' Safety for Pesticide Makers' Immunity

NAPLES, FL — Stand for Health Freedom filed a friend of the court brief yesterday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reject pesticide maker Monsanto's claim that government approval of a product label removes Americans' right to sue if the company does not warn about known health risks. The case, Monsanto Company v. John L. Durnell (No. 24-1068), was brought by John Durnell, a Missouri man who developed cancer after years of using Roundup, one of the most widely used weedkillers in America, without being warned it could be dangerous. The brief supports Durnell.

“Congress never gave pesticide makers a free pass to hide health risks from the American people. FIFRA says registration is not a defense to civil liability for failure to warn on know risks — period,” said James Bopp, Jr., of The Bopp Law Firm, PC and counsel for SHF. “What the pesticide maker wants isn't preemption. It's immunity for damages to people its products injured with no federal remedy, compensation, or courtroom. The Constitution doesn't allow that.”

The pesticide maker is trying to use the EPA's approval of its Roundup label to block all state civil lawsuits. The federal pesticide law, called FIFRA, was created to set basic safety standards for labeling, not to give manufacturers immunity when their labels do not warn its users about known health dangers. Three separate juries found that the pesticide maker had substantial evidence that Roundup's main ingredient could cause cancer and kept that information hidden. Bayer, the pesticide maker's parent company, has paid about $11 billion to settle more than 100,000 claims.

Durnell sued because the pesticide maker never placed a cancer warning on the Roundup label, even though it had knew of the risk. A Missouri jury awarded him $1.25 million. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case and will decide if the EPA's approval of a label can block all state civil lawsuits for failing to warn. This case will determine whether Americans retain any legal right to hold pesticide makers accountable when they fail to disclose known health dangers.

“Stand for Health Freedom is filing this brief on behalf of nearly one million Americans to ensure the Court understands what this case means for the people most impacted,” said Leah Wilson, Executive Director of SHF. “We are actively fighting and defeating these same liability shields across the country. This is an improper use of tort reform that would strip states, courts, and individuals of the ability to hold corporations accountable for marketing dangerous products without warnings of know health risks. We want the Court to understand that the American people will bear the cost if accountability is lost.”

The U.S. Supreme Court docket for Monsanto Company v. Durnell (No. 24-1068) is available here, and the SHF brief is available on the docket here

Stand for Health Freedom (“SHF”) is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization dedicated to informing and activating a grassroots movement to protect our health and our families. Since its founding in August 2019, SHF has empowered over 966,000 individuals through partnerships with local organizations to directly contact their elected officials and others in positions of influence. Together they have taken over 6.5 million actions through SHF's specialized portal to preserve and promote informed consent, parental rights, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and privacy.