Fifth Circuit Rules Clean Drinking Water Is Not a Constitutional Right

On September 4, the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 10 to 5 that clean drinking water is not a right protected by the U.S. Constitution. The en banc decision dismisses Sterling v. City of Jackson, a 2022 civil lawsuit brought by four Jackson, Mississippi residents: Priscilla Sterling, Raine Becker, Shawn Miller, and John Bennett. According to Baller Alert, the plaintiffs argued under the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause that city officials violated their right to bodily integrity by knowingly allowing lead to contaminate tap water. State health department testing flagged elevated lead levels in Jackson between 2010 and 2013. Writing for the majority, Judge Kurt Engelhardt stated that “the Constitution does not provide redress for every governmental wrongdoing.” The court found no historical basis to place tap contamination under bodily integrity. The ruling went further, establishing that residents have no constitutional right to truthful information from public officials during a health crisis. Individual officials were also shielded under qualified immunity because no prior precedent established clean water as a constitutional necessity. The ruling leaves Jackson, a city more than 80 percent Black, with zero constitutional recourse for municipal neglect. While the Safe Drinking Water Act still applies and Jackson’s system currently operates under federal court-ordered oversight, the Fifth Circuit has created a distinct legal boundary across Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Judge Haynes noted in a separate writing that ten other federal appeals courts recognize the state-created danger doctrine. The Fifth Circuit refuses to touch it. Federal appellate courts routinely protect corporate assets with strict scrutiny, yet draw the line at potable water entering human bodies. For citizens under the Fifth Circuit, the message is clear: federal constitutional rights end at the kitchen sink.