Published October 21, 2026
The federal judge overseeing the Roundup multidistrict litigation wants help working out what is left of the remaining cases after this summer's Supreme Court decision. According to Law.com, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California has issued an order inviting amicus (friend-of-the-court) briefs on the question.
On June 25, 2026, the Supreme Court held in Monsanto Co. v. Durnell that federal pesticide law (FIFRA) preempted a Missouri plaintiff's claim that Monsanto should have warned of a cancer risk on the Roundup label, because a state cannot require label language beyond what the EPA approved. That ruling dealt specifically with failure-to-warn claims.
Judge Chhabria's order looks at what that means for other kinds of claims. It asks whether federal law also preempts claims for negligence, design defect, and breach of express or implied warranty under the laws of six states: Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia and Arizona. Put simply, the court is trying to decide whether Durnell ends only the warning-label theory or reaches much further into the remaining federal cases.
The court has not yet ruled. The publicly available reporting does not give a briefing deadline.
Courts are already reaching different answers on related questions. Earlier this month, as we reported, a federal judge in Idaho dismissed former NFL player Merril Hoge's failure-to-warn claim after Durnell but let his negligence and design-defect claims proceed. Separately, Monsanto's roughly $7.5 billion class settlement in Missouri is aimed at resolving thousands of state-court claims that sit outside the federal MDL, and Law.com reports that more than 450 Roundup cases remain pending in Philadelphia state court.
If Judge Chhabria concludes that Durnell reaches design-defect and negligence claims in these states, many plaintiffs there could lose their main remaining paths to recovery in federal court. If he concludes it does not, those claims could move forward even after the Supreme Court's decision.
If you or a family member were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma after regular Roundup exposure, see Atumio's Roundup case page for a free eligibility review, or start your case review directly.