Your government can poison your water, lie to your face about it, and the Constitution has nothing to say about it. That’s not a conspiracy theory — that’s a federal court ruling.
A federal appeals court declared that the U.S. Constitution guarantees neither clean drinking water nor accurate information from government officials, dismissing a lawsuit from Jackson, Mississippi residents who were knowingly poisoned with lead-contaminated water.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 10-5 on September 4 that the plaintiffs’ claims did not violate rights protected under the 14th Amendment. The decision upholds the dismissal of a 2022 lawsuit filed by residents Priscilla Sterling, Raine Becker, Shawn Miller, and John Bennett, who alleged that city officials allowed residents to drink unsafe water and provided false assurances about its safety.
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Judge Kurt Engelhardt, writing for the majority, acknowledged that the deprivation of clean water was “grievous” but concluded it did “not infringe upon any deeply rooted constitutional right”. The court found that lead exposure resulting from the city’s mismanagement was “wholly different” from past cases involving bodily integrity violations such as forced surgery or assault.
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The ruling also rejected any constitutional right to “truthful information from officials during a public health crisis”.
Judge Catharina Haynes dissented in part, noting that the allegations “mirror in various ways one of the worst public health crises in recent American history—the Flint water crisis”. She argued the residents deserved at least the opportunity for discovery.
The lawsuit stemmed from testing conducted by the Mississippi State Health Department between 2010 and 2013 that revealed rising lead levels in Jackson’s water supply.
The city has faced over 300 boil-water notices in the past two years and more than 7,300 water line breaks in the past four years. Two-thirds of water samples still contain lead.
