Overview
- The Fifth Circuit on Friday affirmed dismissal of the 2022 lawsuit that alleged Jackson, Mississippi knowingly let residents drink lead-contaminated water and hid the danger from the public.
- Judge Kurt Engelhardt wrote that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a federal remedy for the plaintiffs’ claims of deprivation of clean water or for lack of truthful information from officials.
- Plaintiffs say officials delayed warnings after elevated lead was found in 2015 and that EPA tests in 2020 documented leaks, pipe corrosion and high lead levels across the system; the suit says several children of plaintiff Priscilla Sterling were diagnosed with lead poisoning.
- The appellate ruling came the same day the EPA under the Trump administration issued a supplemental rule seen as rolling back Clean Water Act safeguards, a move legal and environmental groups condemned.
- Jackson’s mostly Black, high-poverty population still faces an aging system that regulators have not fully fixed, leaving residents reliant on short-term fixes and shifting the fight to state law, infrastructure funding and future rulemakings.