U.S.
Supreme Court lets Flint, Michigan residents sue over water
contamination
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[January 22, 2020]
By Andrew Chung
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme
Court on Tuesday let residents of Flint, Michigan pursue a civil rights
lawsuit against the city and government officials that accused them of
knowingly allowing the city's water supply to become contaminated with
lead.
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The justices turned away two appeals by the city and the state and
local officials of a lower court ruling that allowed the lawsuit to
move forward. The lower court rejected a demand for immunity by the
officials, finding that they violated the residents' right to
"bodily integrity" under the U.S. Constitution by providing the
tainted water after switching water sources in a cost-cutting move
in 2014.
The justices' action comes as similar class-action cases are
currently on appeal at the Cincinnati, Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals.
Flint switched its public water source from Lake Huron to the Flint
River to reduce costs during a financial crisis. The corrosive river
water caused lead to leach from pipes.
Lead poisoning can stunt children's cognitive development. No level
of exposure is considered safe.
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The city switched back to Lake Huron water the next year. The
contaminated river water also triggered an outbreak of
bacteria-caused Legionnaires' disease, which killed 12 people and
sickened dozens of others
Lawsuits over Flint's water have proliferated in recent years. The
number of people who have reported being harmed through exposure to
contaminants in Flint, including lead and bacteria, or who
experienced ailments such as rashes and hair loss, has reached more
than 25,000, including more than 5,000 children under 12, according
to court records.
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The cases center on the Constitution's 14th Amendment guarantee of
due process under the law, which can protect people from
government-induced harm to their personal security or health, a
legal principle known as "bodily integrity."
Courts have previously enforced the right to confront abuses of
power in cases of direct physical intrusion, such as non-consensual
medical procedures or forced drug administration.
The defendants argued that the lower courts have dangerously
expanded that right by applying it to policy decisions that result
in public exposure to environmental toxins. They also argued they
are protected from the claims through a legal doctrine known as
"qualified immunity" because they could not have known they could be
held liable for "doing the best they could in difficult
circumstances with limited information."
The case before the justices was filed in 2016 by two Flint
residents including Shari Guertin, who said that she and her child
were exposed to high levels of lead.
Calling the water crisis a "government-created environmental
disaster" in a 2019 ruling, the 6th Circuit green-lighted the
constitutional claims and rejected immunity for the officials.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)
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