The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit against Jackson alleging the city knowingly allowed residents to drink contaminated water. A group of residents filed the lawsuit in 2022, before it was dismissed in U.S. District Court in 2024.
The plaintiffs — residents Priscilla Sterling, Raine Becker, Shawn Miller and John Bennett — alleged that the city’s actions and failures caused lead to enter Jackson’s drinking water and that city officials later misrepresented that the water was safe to drink. The lawsuit claims the contamination violated Jacksonians’ right to “bodily integrity.”
The allegations point to testing from the Mississippi State Department of Health from 2010 to 2013 that showed lead in the city’s water was “increasing at an alarming rate.”
“Rather than take the needed steps to stop lead from leaching further into the water, the City ignored warnings, even actively switching a section of the City’s water source from a safe groundwater system to the corrosive surface water system that was already causing lead to leach from its pipes into residents’ drinking water,” the plaintiffs wrote in their 2024 appeal.
The lawsuit named as defendants: the city, former mayors Chokwe A. Lumumba and Tony Yarber; former public works directors Kishia Powell, Robert Miller and Jerriot Smash; and Trilogy Engineering Services.
In affirming the district court’s 2022 ruling, the court said that while the alleged deprivations of clean water and honest information are “grievous,” they “do not infringe upon any deeply rooted constitutional right.” The opinion added that the allegations aren’t comparable to bodily integrity cases the court has previously ruled on, such as those arguing assault or forced surgery.
“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 otherwise,” Judge Kurt Engelhardt wrote.
Engelhardt added there is no “constitutional right to truthful information from officials during a public health crisis.” The plaintiffs, though, have other avenues to pursue justice in the matter, he said.
“The Constitution does not provide a remedy for Plaintiffs’ injuries,” the opinion argued. “But that does not mean they are without a remedy. Plaintiffs may pursue tort claims against Defendants, elect officials who will better manage the water system and provide accurate information to the public, or petition their state and federal legislatures for other remedies.”
Jackson Mayor John Horhn said in a statement Friday, “We are pleased that the Fifth Circuit upheld the dismissal of these claims. The City remains committed to the health, safety, and well-being of every Jackson resident.”
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