STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
People who turned up outside the Supreme Court yesterday had a message for the justices.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: People versus poison. People versus poison. People versus poison.
INSKEEP: The court is considering whether federal law shields Monsanto, the company, from claims by people who say its popular weed killer caused their cancer. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: The case revolves around a Missouri man who says a key ingredient in the Roundup product gave him blood cancer. A jury awarded him more than $1 million because Monsanto allegedly failed to warn of the health risks. But Paul Clement, a lawyer for the company, told the Supreme Court a U.S. law gives the federal government authority over labels, not the states.
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PAUL CLEMENT: It's probably the most, like, studied herbicide in the history of man. And they've all reached the conclusion, based on more data and the kind of expert analysis they can do, that there isn't a risk here. You shouldn't let a single Missouri jury second-guess that judgment.
JOHNSON: The Trump administration sided with Monsanto, now owned by Bayer. The president recently signed an executive order trying to drive more production of glyphosate, the controversial ingredient in the Roundup weed killer. Deputy Solicitor General Sarah Harris says the Environmental Protection Agency is in the driver's seat, not anyone in Missouri.
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SARAH HARRIS: Missouri thus requires adding cancer warnings, but federal law requires EPA to approve new warnings and tasks EPA with deciding what label changes would mitigate any health risks. State law must give way.
JOHNSON: Ashley Keller, a lawyer for the Missouri man, says there's room for states to weigh in. He pointed out Monsanto's lobbying Congress now for a liability shield. But until Congress acts, he says, thousands of state cases like his client's should proceed. The justices seem divided. Several, like Brett Kavanaugh, appeared to side with Monsanto's argument about the need for a single uniform standard across the country. Others, like Chief Justice John Roberts, wondered what would happen if the federal government moved slowly and states wanted to act fast on information about new dangers or new science. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
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KETANJI BROWN JACKSON: There's a 15-year window between when the - that product has to be reregistered again. And lots of things can happen in science in terms of developments about the product.
JOHNSON: A decision's expected by the end of the term this summer. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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