According to a truly horrifying new report from Mother Jones, a Trump-appointed judge has made it abundantly clear that safe, clean, uncontaminated drinking water is, in fact, not a right afforded to Americans.
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Kurt Engelhardt, who was appointed to his position by none other than Donald J. Trump, delivered that bone-chilling ruling in his dismissal of a lawsuit brought against the city of Jackson, Mississippi, by its residents, in which they accused the city of knowingly allowing them to consume water that was heavily contaminated with lead for upwards of six months in 2015.
“Defendants’ actions allegedly deprived Plaintiffs of clean water and guileless information,” Engelhardt wrote in his dismissal on Friday. “These deprivations, while grievous, do not infringe upon any deeply rooted constitutional right.”
Nine US states and more than a dozen countries around the world maintain protections surrounding citizens’ right to clean, safe drinking water. In both New York and Massachusetts, that basic human right is intertwined into their state constitutions.
But according to Engelhardt, the US Constitution does not provide that basic human right to all American citizens.
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