January 09, 2026 | Source: The New York Times | by Seth Perlman

The Supreme Court is poised to decide whether to take up a case involving weedkillers and cancer that could effectively curtail one of the largest waves of tort litigation in American history.

The case involves Bayer, the German conglomerate that acquired the pesticide manufacturer Monsanto in 2018. Bayer is petitioning the court for a definitive ruling on whether federal law shields the company from thousands of lawsuits claiming that its widely-used weedkiller Roundup causes cancer.

The Trump administration has thrown its support behind Bayer, reversing a position taken by President Biden. But the issue has raised the ire of an extraordinary coalition of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, environmental groups, and Republican-aligned Make America Healthy Again activists who say that Bayer is seeking corporate immunity at the expense of public health.