Six Arkansas farmers will be allowed to spray dicamba this growing season while the rest of the state will remain under a statewide ban on the herbicide. On Friday Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox ruled the farmers can spray past the April 15th cutoff date.
In November the six growers had sued the Arkansas Plant Board to nullify the deadline. The judge dismissed that lawsuit, citing the Arkansas Supreme Court’s ruling in January that the state, under the sovereign immunity clause in its 1874 constitution, cannot be made a defendant in its own courts.
Fox also ruled the farmers were exempt from the Plant Board ruling because their inability to sue violated their due process.
Since the farmers’ lawsuit wasn’t a class-action filing, the judge’s ruling only affects those six farmers and allows them to spray dicamba.
