A federal appeals court ruled last week that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a right to clean drinking water.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, sitting en banc, issued a 10-5 decision on September 4 affirming the dismissal of claims brought by four Jackson residents against the city and its officials. The plaintiffs alleged that mismanagement led to lead contamination in the municipal water supply and that officials provided misleading information about its safety.

Judge Kurt Engelhardt wrote for the majority that the alleged deprivations were grievous but did not infringe on any deeply rooted constitutional right. “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,” Engelhardt stated. The court also rejected a claimed right to truthful information from public officials during a health crisis.

“It is undisputed that the Constitution does not guarantee clean water,” the opinion said. The majority noted that the Constitution does not provide redress for every governmental wrongdoing and that residents could pursue other avenues such as electing new officials or seeking statutory remedies.

The lawsuit originated from Jackson’s 2022 water crisis, during which residents faced widespread lead contamination. Plaintiffs argued the city’s actions violated their right to bodily integrity under the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause. A lower court had dismissed the case, and an earlier Fifth Circuit panel decision reviving parts of it was vacated before the full court reheard the matter.

The ruling declined to extend substantive due process protections in the manner of a 2019 Sixth Circuit decision involving Flint, Michigan. Several states have enacted their own protections for access to safe water, but no such federal constitutional right exists.

The decision limits the use of federal civil rights claims under Section 1983 to challenge municipal water service failures as constitutional violations.