As residents of Jackson, Mississippi deal with a years-long water crisis, the quest to hold government officials responsible for the situation has hit a setback. A federal court has denied the claims that access to safe water is a constitutionally protected right and that government officials have a responsibility to be honest with the citizens they serve.
Providing contaminated water not a constitutional violation, court rules
As USA Today reported, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a September 4 ruling rejecting constitutional claims made by several residents of Jackson who sued the city in 2022. Upholding an earlier court ruling in favor of Jackson, the majority opinion of the 5th Circuit ruled that Jackson city officials had not violated the constitutional rights of its citizens by providing them with polluted drinking water. Judge Kurt Engelhardt wrote in the majority decision that, despite a “grievous” situation created by city mismanagement, the actions of Jackson did “not infringe upon any deeply rooted constitutional right.” Judge Engelhardt wrote on behalf of the court, “We are skeptical that the right to not be harmed by lead-contaminated water fits within the right to bodily integrity, and Plaintiffs point us to no historical tradition or Supreme Court precedent convincing us.” The court contrasted Jackson officials’ actions with examples such as “forced surgery, involuntary medicating, and assault” that could meet the definition of constitutional violations.
Constitution doesn’t require public officials to tell the truth, ruling says
The ruling rejected an argument made on behalf of four plaintiffs accusing the city of knowingly allowing lead-contaminated drinking water to be consumed by Jackson residents while lying to them about the safety of the water supply. The lawsuit, filed in 2022, came after the Mississippi State Health Department concluded that lead levels in Jackson’s drinking water rose between 2010 and 2013. Jackson officials, the lawsuit alleged, knew about the unsafe water but did not take appropriate steps to mitigate or even acknowledge the danger. The 5th Circuit rejected the idea that these actions violated Jackson residents’ 14th Amendment right of due process. The court also ruled that officials lying about the safety of the water did not rise to the level of a rights violation, determining that citizens did not have a constitutional right to “truthful information from officials during a public health crisis.”
Water crises fuel focus on environmental racism
As Blavity has previously reported, Jackson has experienced years of water crises due to lead pollution, poor and damaged infrastructure, and other aspects of apparent neglect and mismanagement exacerbated by storms. The experiences in Jackson, a majority-Black city, broadly echo the crises of water mismanagement and pollution seen in other Black communities such as Flint, Michigan. Such examples have increasingly brought focus to the issue of environmental racism in the United States. Despite these concerns, the federal court system has so far denied that the Jackson case constitutes civil rights violations or merits punitive actions against the government for the water crisis. “The Constitution does not provide redress for every governmental wrongdoing,” Judge Engelhardt wrote in the court’s opinion, suggesting that residents instead seek redress through electing different officials and demanding action from the Jackson government.
The appeals court’s ruling is a disappointing setback for Jackson residents who have been dealing with years of polluted water amid public mismanagement and even deception. The court’s decision, while not denying the seriousness of the actions committed by public officials, declines to frame these actions as civil rights violations, thus limiting the ability of residents and their legal representatives to demand redress for the harms committed against them.
