North Dakota enacts nation's first law shielding Roundup's maker from some cancer lawsuits

A new first-of-its-kind law enacted in North Dakota could shield agrochemical manufacturer Bayer from lawsuits claiming it failed to warn customers that its popular weedkiller Roundup could cause cancer.

Though the immediate effect may be small, given that North Dakota is among the least populated U.S. states, Bayer is hopeful that success there could lead to similar laws being passed around the country. The company faces an onslaught of lawsuits seeking billions of dollars for alleged harm from Roundup. The next state to follow North Dakota could be Georgia, where a similar bill is pending before Gov. Brian Kemp.

Bayer, based in Germany, acquired Roundup with the 2018 purchase of St. Louis-based Monsanto. It contends glyphosate, an active ingredient in Roundup, has for decades provided a safe and efficient way to control weeds with less tilling, which helps prevent soil erosion. For crops such as corn, soybeans and cotton, Roundup is designed to work with genetically modified seeds that resist glyphosate’s deadly effect.

“Without crop protection tools, America’s consumers could face higher costs to provide for their families and put food on the table,” Brian Naber, Bayer’s president of crop science for North America, Australia and New Zealand, said in a statement praising the North Dakota law.

North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong declined to comment Thursday about the legislation, which he signed without fanfare a day earlier.

Bayer has been hit with about 181,000 legal claims alleging that Roundup’s key ingredient, glyphosate, causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Though some studies associate glyphosate with cancer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said it is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans when used as directed.

Bayer, which disputes the cancer claims, has teamed with a coalition of agricultural groups to back legislation in at least 11 states this year seeking to undercut the main argument made in the lawsuits. The bills declare that a federally approved label on pesticides is sufficient to satisfy any duty under state law to warn customers. Bayer also has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the legal claims.

Many agricultural industry groups contend glyphosate is an essential tool for farmers. They're concerned that mounting legal costs could lead Bayer to pull the product from the U.S. market.

The North Dakota law, which will take effect Aug. 1, “is a resounding win for farmers” and “sets the standard for states across America to pass legislation," said Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, executive director of the Modern Ag Alliance, which Bayer helps finance.

Though prompted by lawsuits against Bayer, the North Dakota legislation would apply more broadly to other pesticides with federally approved labels.

“Ultimately, this sets a bad precedent,” said Sam Wagner, an agriculture and food organizer for the Dakota Resource Council, which opposed the measure. "It will arguably make it extremely tough for anyone to win a case” filed in North Dakota against a pesticide manufacturer.

As President Donald Trump's administration seeks to rollback federal regulations, new state laws that limit court claims could leave some people without any avenue to seek compensation for their injuries and losses, said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for an end to toxic pesticides.

“The chemical companies should not be able to hide behind a weak regulatory system," Feldman said.

Associated Press reporter Jack Dura contributed to this report.

North Dakota Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong gathers with lawmakers and other people at a photo event for bill signings on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at the state Capitol in Bismarck, N.D. (AP Photo/Jack Dura)

North Dakota Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong signs a bill on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at the state Capitol in Bismarck, N.D. (AP Photo/Jack Dura Jack)

MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — The man convicted of stabbing Salman Rushdie on a New York lecture stage in 2022, leaving the prizewinning author blind in one eye, is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday.

A jury found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of attempted murder and assault in February.

Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said he will request the maximum 25 years in prison for the Aug. 12, 2022, attack on Rushdie and seven years for injuring a second man who was on stage with the author. The sentences must run concurrently because both victims were injured in the same event, he said.

Rushdie is not expected to return to court for his assailant's sentencing, the prosecutor said. During the trial, the 77-year-old author was the key witness, describing how he believed he was dying when a masked attacker plunged a knife into his head and body more than a dozen times as he was being introduced at the Chautauqua Institution to speak about writer safety.

Rushdie spent 17 days at a Pennsylvania hospital and more than three weeks at a New York City rehabilitation center. The author of “Midnight's Children,” “The Moor’s Last Sigh" and “Victory City” detailed his recovery in his 2024 memoir, “Knife.”

Matar next faces a federal trial on terrorism-related charges. While the first trial focused mostly on the details of the knife attack itself, the next one is expected to delve into the more complicated issue of motive.

Authorities said Matar, a U.S. citizen, was attempting to carry out a decades-old fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death when he traveled from his home in Fairview, New Jersey, to target Rushdie at the summer retreat about 70 miles (112.6 kilometers) southwest of Buffalo.

Matar believed the fatwa, first issued in 1989, was backed by the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and endorsed in a 2006 speech by the group’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, according to federal prosecutors.

Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the fatwa after publication of Rushdie's novel, “The Satanic Verses,” which some Muslims consider blasphemous. Rushdie spent years in hiding, but after Iran announced it would not enforce the decree he traveled freely over the past quarter century.

Matar pleaded not guilty to a three-count indictment charging him with providing material to terrorists, attempting to provide material support to Hezbollah and engaging in terrorism transcending national boundaries.

Video of the assault, captured by the venue's cameras and played at trial, show Matar approaching the seated Rushdie from behind and reaching around him to stab at his torso with a knife. As the audience gasps and screams, Rushdie is seen raising his arms and rising from his seat, walking and stumbling for a few steps with Matar hanging on, swinging and stabbing until they both fall and are surrounded by onlookers who rush in to separate them.

Jurors in Matar's first trial delivered their verdict after less than two hours of deliberation.

FILE - Author Salman Rushdie appears at a press conference at the Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany on Oct. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)

FILE - Hadi Matar sits in Chautauqua County court in Mayville, N.Y., Feb. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus, file)