Appeals Court Rules Constitution Does Not Guarantee a Right to Safe Drinking Water

On Friday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against Jackson, Mississippi, in which residents accused the city of knowingly allowing them to consume lead-contaminated water.

The lawsuit, originally filed in 2022, argued that the contamination violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional right to bodily integrity. Trump-appointed Judge Kurt Engelhardt rejected that claim. “The Constitution does not provide redress for every governmental wrongdoing,” Engelhardt wrote. “Defendants’ actions allegedly deprived Plaintiffs of clean water and honest information. These deprivations, while grievous, do not infringe upon any deeply rooted constitutional right.”

That may hold in Mississippi, but at least nine US states and more than a dozen countries constitutionally protect the right to clean drinking water. Uruguay and South Africa enshrine it in their constitutions. New York’s constitution, amended in 2021, guarantees “each person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.” Massachusetts has protected that same right since 1972.

The Fifth Circuit, however, found the US Constitution too narrow for such a claim. The Jackson plaintiffs alleged their city government deliberately concealed the water’s toxicity and worsened the crisis through boil-water notices—a practice that can kill bacteria but also concentrates lead. Engelhardt ruled there is no “constitutional right to truthful information from officials during a public health crisis.”

Jackson is more than 80 percent Black, with a poverty rate more than double the national average, and its water system has long required urgent upgrades. In 2015, Mississippi health officials discovered elevated lead levels but remained silent for six months while residents continued drinking toxic water, according to Grist reporting.

EPA tests conducted in 2020 revealed “persistent and concerning violations” of water safety policy, including leaks, corrosion, and high lead levels throughout the system.

Despite these findings, no city, state, or federal agency resolved the problem. Jackson resident Priscilla Sterling, a plaintiff in the suit, continued drinking water with unsafe lead levels. Several of her children have since been diagnosed with lead poisoning, which can cause permanent brain damage. A quarter of Jackson’s residents are children, who are especially vulnerable to lead’s lifelong effects.

The ruling arrives as the Trump administration moves to weaken clean-water protections. Also on Friday, the EPA released a supplemental rule diluting the Clean Water Act, drawing swift condemnation from environmental groups.

“The administration is clearly struggling to craft a rule that will hold up in court while satisfying their donors’ desire to effectively scrap these protections wherever possible,” said Jim Murphy of the National Wildlife Federation. “One thing is clear: If we don’t protect our streams and wetlands, the cost of dirtier drinking water and increased flooding will flow downstream to households at a time when most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.”

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