‘Organic’ Advocates Seek to Influence Madison County Atrazine Case

We’ll post more about this soon, but sources tell Judicial Hellholes reporters that a would-be WikiLeaks-like website is poised to post previously unsealed, proprietary documents provided during discovery by Syngenta, the defendant in a long-running, if meritless, class action in Madison County, Illinois.

With no scientific evidence, the plaintiffs in the case — filed in 2004 — nonetheless allege that the weed killer atrazine, made by Syngenta, has contaminated groundwater and harmed public health.  Now, the new document-dump website, funded in large part by the organic farming industry, wants to undermine Syngenta’s standing with the public so as to influence a future jury pool,perhaps, or otherwise help pressure the chemical company into a costly settlement with the plaintiffs.

Anyone can understand why advocates for organic farming want to hurt herbicide makers and the conventional farmers who rely on their products.  But why are Madison County judges so apparently willing to help them?