Law360 has published my sharply critical Expert Analysis of the amicus brief that the U.S. Solicitor General recently submitted to the Supreme Court in Monsanto Co. v. Hardeman, No. 21-241. My analysis explains that – “From the perspective of product liability defense attorneys, the brief from the solicitor general is a transparently partisan, short-sighted effort to […]
Justices Should Give Feds’ Roundup Amicus Little Weight Read More »
The Atlantic Legal Foundation has submitted an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) letter urging the California Supreme Court to grant the petition for review filed on August 31, 2020 by Monsanto Company in Johnson v. Monsanto, a bellwether case in which a former school groundskeeper claims he developed a form of cancer as a result
Amicus Letter Explains That Federal Law Preempts Roundup® Product Liability Suit Read More »
The following case analysis was published in the Washington Legal Foundation’s Legal Pulse blog on August 4, 2020. In the WLF Legal Pulse post EPA Finally Flexes Some Preemption Muscle, I explained that last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) repudiated California’s attempt, under the State’s Proposition 65 right-to-know law, to require manufacturers of glyphosate weed-control products
California’s Attorney General just doesn’t get it. Maybe he’s been watching too many of those slick infomercials trolling for Roundup® “victims.” In 1972 Congress enacted a law—the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)—that gives the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sole and exclusive authority to regulate the content of pesticide product labeling. FIFRA vests EPA
California Can’t Usurp USEPA’s Authority Over Roundup® Labeling Read More »
OEHHA—the laughable acronym for the California agency responsible for requiring countless businesses to post ubiquitous Proposition 65 warning signs about hundreds of chemicals found in everyday products—has suffered a major defeat in the 9th Circuit. A panel held 2 to 1 that requiring businesses to provide a cancer warning about glyphosate (the active ingredient in
Proposition 65 Cancer Warning For Glyphosate Held Unconstitutional Read More »
Publications & Presentations* Publications (1979 – present) Webinars, Panels, Videos & Other Presentations * The publications and presentations listed here are part of my professional bibliography over the past five decades. They are not intended to provide legal advice, and their currency and/or accuracy is neither expressly nor impliedly warranted.
Publications & Presentations Read More »
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has granted rehearing en banc in Carson v. Monsanto Co., No. 21-10994, one of thousands of state-law personal injury suits alleging that Monsanto, the manufacturer of Roundup herbicide, failed to provide a label warning that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, can cause cancer. The U.S. Environmental
3M Company v. Amador The Atlantic Legal Foundation (ALF), joined by Washington Legal Foundation and DRI-The Voice of the Defense Bar, has filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to hear an appeal that challenges the Eighth Circuit’s lax interpretation and application of Federal Rule of Evidence 702 (Testimony by Expert Witnesses). Rule 702 was amended more than 20 years
Amicus Brief Urges Supreme Court To Keep “Junk Science” Away From Juries Read More »
More than two decades ago, I stood before the Justices of the California Supreme Court and succeeded in persuading them that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) expressly preempts pesticide-related failure to warn claims. See Etcheverry v. Tri-Ag Service, Inc., 22 Cal.4th 316 (Cal. 2000). Five years later, in Bates v. Dow AgroSciences,
It’s Time For The Supreme Court To Revisit FIFRA Preemption Read More »
I today filed on behalf of the Atlantic Legal Foundation a petition-stage amicus brief supporting Petitioner Monsanto Company in Monsanto Co. v. Hardeman, No. 21-241. The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) vests the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with exclusive authority to regulate the content of pesticide product labeling. FIFRA accomplishes this by expressly
ALF Urges Supreme Court To Clarify Federal Preemption Of Pesticide Failure-To-Warn Suits Read More »
