People are absolutely dragging Mississippi officials online after a federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit from Jackson residents who accused leaders of knowingly allowing people to drink lead-contaminated water for months.
According to the lawsuit, residents were allegedly kept in the dark about the contamination and were even told to boil their water — despite boiling water potentially concentrating lead instead of removing it.
Fifth Circuit Judge Kurt Engelhardt called the alleged deprivation of clean water “grievous,” but ruled that it did not violate a deeply rooted constitutional right. The court also ruled that residents do not have a constitutional right to receive truthful information from government officials during a public health crisis.
That ruling has people FURIOUS.
Some commenters are telling Mississippi residents to start collecting rainwater and stop trusting the government with their water supply. Others are questioning how something as basic as clean drinking water is apparently not considered a constitutional right, while some are going even further asking, “Why are people still living in Mississippi?”
The reaction is getting ugly because people feel like this basically sends the message that residents can allegedly be left in the dark during a serious health crisis and still have very limited legal recourse.