SCOTUS gives Bayer what Iowa wouldn't
By Accountable Iowa
July 7, 2026
For years, Bayer has been trying to rig the rules. When state lawmakers, including Iowa's Legislature, refused to hand the company liability immunity, Bayer kept pushing. When Congress rejected its latest attempt to sneak the same protection into the Farm Bill, it looked like accountability had won again.
Then the Supreme Court stepped in.
In a devastating decision, the Court handed Bayer/Monsanto (and numerous other pesticide manufacturers) the legal shield they couldn't win from lawmakers in Iowa and across the country. The ruling makes it far harder for Americans harmed by dangerous pesticides to hold these companies accountable when they fail to warn consumers about serious health risks.
At the center of the case is the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the federal law that governs how pesticides are approved and labeled. Bayer has spent years arguing that because the EPA approved Roundup's label, states should be barred from holding the company accountable for failing to warn consumers about cancer risks. The Supreme Court largely accepted that argument, making it much more difficult for victims to bring the very failure-to-warn lawsuits that exposed evidence of Bayer/Monsanto’s gross misconduct in the first place.
The biggest losers are the farmers, families, and workers who courageously exercised their constitutional right to have their cases heard by a jury. Those victims, and the jurors who carefully weighed the evidence, helped expose what millions of Americans now understand: chemical companies can't be trusted to put public health ahead of corporate profits.
But this fight isn't over. Congress wrote FIFRA, and Congress can fix it. Lawmakers should make it unmistakably clear that federal law was never intended to give chemical corporations immunity when they fail to warn Americans about dangerous products.
Iowans have already made their position clear. Time and again, they've rejected Bayer's attempts to escape accountability. They believe no corporation, especially a foreign chemical giant, should get a free pass when its products cause harm.
Now Congress must do the same. Take action today! Contact your member of Congress and urge them to update FIFRA to restore Americans' right to hold pesticide manufacturers accountable in court.