On April 19, 2018, the California Court of Appeal affirmed a trial court decision that rejected a challenge to the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment’s (OEHHA) controversial listing of glyphosate as a potential carcinogen under its Prop 65 warning regime. The decision was a setback for WLF which filed a brief in the case contending that OEHHA’s reliance on the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)—a private, politically unaccountable organization—to add glyphosate to the Prop 65 list constitutes an improper delegation of rulemaking authority in violation of the California Constitution’s separation of powers. WLF further argued that by granting IARC the power to determine which chemicals are placed on the Prop 65 list maintained by OEHHA, Prop 65’s listing mechanism violates Article II, § 12 of the California Constitution, which expressly prohibits designating “any private corporation to perform any function or to have any power or duty.”

Loss; WLF will continue to monitor the case for any further appeal.