The Trump administration is backing Bayer’s bid for Supreme Court review of whether the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act pre-empts pesticide lawsuits filed in state courts.

Bayer alleges FIFRA should prevent such actions, and the U.S. solicitor general agreed, saying that “EPA’s approval of Roundup labels without a cancer warning, combined with an EPA regulation that prohibits petitioner [Bayer] from adding such a warning without agency approval,” pre-empts the failure-to-warn claim brought by plaintiff John Durnell, a Missouri man who won $1.25 million in a verdict upheld by the Missouri Court of Appeals in April.

That court rejected reasoning from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia, which found in 2024 that FIFRA pre-empts state liability law. Instead, it followed decisions from the 9th and 11th circuit courts of appeal.

That split in the circuit court necessitates review by the Supreme Court, Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in the government’s brief, which had been invited by the court.

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Bayer applauded the development. “The company believes that the backing of the U.S. government will be important to the court’s consideration of its petition,” the company’s news release said. “The split among federal circuit courts in the Roundup™ personal injury litigation, on the cross-cutting question of whether federal law preempts state claims based on failure-to-warn theories, warrants review and resolution by the country’s top court.”

The company added that “as part of [its] multi-pronged strategy, a positive ruling on the central, cross-cutting preemption issue could help bring the company closer to closure of tens of thousands of Roundup cases, which are overwhelmingly based on claims grounded in failure-to-warn theories.”

Bayer has paid out billions to resolve lawsuits filed by Roundup users who allege that exposure to the herbicide caused their non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Bayer stock jumped on the news, rising 12% in the over-the-counter market as of about 1 p.m. Tuesday.

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