For more than 35 years, ALF Executive Vice President & General Counsel Larry Ebner has argued in federal and state appellate and trial courts throughout the United States that federal law preempts personal injury suits alleging that a pesticide manufacturer failed to include a necessary health or safety warning on its U.S. EPA-regulated and approved product labeling. Larry’s federal preemption advocacy includes several Supreme Court amicus briefs that he has authored on behalf of ALF, most recently in Monsanto Co. v. Durnell, which the Court decided on June 25, 2026.
The Court’s 7 to 2 decision, authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, unequivocally holds that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) expressly preempts any failure-to-warn claim predicated on the absence of a pesticide label warning that U.S. EPA does not require. This ruling effectively terminates all unresolved failure-to-warn suits involving Roundup, the world’s most widely used herbicide.
In an article published by DRI | Association for Lawyers Defending Business, Larry explains that “the Court’s Durnell opinion not only is a triumph for lawyers who defend business, but also a devastating defeat for the plaintiffs’ bar and anti-pesticide activists.” And “more broadly, the Durnell opinion has tremendous economic and societal significance.”
Read Larry’s commentary by clicking here.
