Supreme Court rejects three agent orange lawsuits

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied cert (that is, decided not to hear the appeal) on three separate cases against Michigan-based Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) over illnesses the plaintiffs blame on the use of agent orange during the Vietnam War. The cert denial means the dismissals of all three cases by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals will stand.

The cases were Stephenson v. Dow Chemical, Isaacson v. Dow Chemical and Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange v. Dow Chemical. The plaintiffs included American military personnel and Vietnamese nationals who were allegedly harmed by the herbicide, which has long been linked to cancer and a host of other conditions. Dow is one of many companies that produced the chemical for the military during the Vietnam War.

In all three cases, Justice John Paul Stevens, as he has done in past cases, recused himself from considering the cert petitions and would have recused himself from ruling in the cases if his colleagues had voted to accept them. As is customary, the court did not comment on why Stevens recused himself, but legal scholars have noted in previous cases that his son was a Vietnam veteran who died of cancer in 1996 and his death may have some connection to agent orange, thus prompting the justice to recuse himself.