The Supreme Court Made the EPA the Sole Arbiter of Pesticide Cancer Warnings
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state governments' duty-to-warn laws do not oblige the chemical manufacturer Monsanto to disclose a cancer risk on its pesticide labels — a decision that turns on who gets to set the warning, not on the underlying science. The court made no pronouncement on whether glyphosate causes cancer, only that the EPA is the sole arbiter of label warnings. So the ruling settles a jurisdictional question while leaving the chemical question exactly where it was.
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The scope runs one direction. States, lower courts and manufacturers are barred from issuing cancer warnings unless the EPA approves them.
Worth remembering that 'sole arbiter' is a role, not a finding. The EPA's own position and the WHO cancer agency's 2015 classification can coexist with a court saying only one of them writes the label.