SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – Several agricultural associations are challenging California's Proposition 65, which would label glyphosate as a carcinogen.
National Association of Wheat Growers; National Corn Growers Association; United States Durum Growers Association, et al. filed a complaint on Nov. 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California against California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) Director Lauren Zeise and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra seeking declaratory and injunctive relief.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff is seeking to prevent the defendants from mandating "false, misleading and highly controversial cancer warnings concerning the herbicide glyphosate on a wide variety of food, agricultural, industrial and lawn and garden products."
The suit states that OEHHA issued a determination in July that glyphosate was added to the chemicals "known to the state to cause cancer."
"California’s listing of glyphosate as a carcinogen and the attendant warning requirement violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by compelling plaintiffs and other entities to make false, misleading and highly controversial statements about their products. The listing and warning requirement also conflict with, and are preempted by, the FDCA (Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act), and violate the due process clause of the 14th Amendment," the suit states.
The plaintiffs seek preliminary and permanent injunctions against the defendants regulations related to glyphosate, plus costs, attorneys' fees, and expenses, and such other and further relief as the court deems just and proper. They are represented by Catherine L. Hanaway, Matthew T. Schelp, Natalie Holder and Christopher C. Miles of Husch Blackwell in St. Louis; Ann M. Grottveit of Kahn, Soares & Conway LLP in Sacramento, California; and others.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California case number 2:17-cv-02401-WBS-EFB