A Trump-appointed judge also said Americans have no “constitutional right to truthful information” during a public health crisis.

On Friday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit against the city of Jackson, Mississippi, which alleged the city knowingly let residents drink lead-contaminated water.

The lawsuit, first filed in 2022, says the contamination violated Jacksonians’ constitutional right to bodily integrity. Donald Trump-appointed judge Kurt Engelhardt disagreed. “The Constitution does not provide redress for every governmental wrongdoing,” Engelhardt said.

“Defendants’ actions allegedly deprived Plaintiffs of clean water and guileless information. These deprivations, while grievous, do not infringe upon any deeply rooted constitutional right.”

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[–] 5 points 1 hour ago

If only the US had integrated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into law. It's only 78 years old. Guess they haven't had time yet.

Article 25

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services,

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  • [–] 10 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (4 children)

    What exactly do Americans have the right to...?

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  • [–] 10 points 5 hours ago*

    Ofc not. This colony was founded by literal enslavers. It's hard to enslave a comfortable population with their basic needs met. No water, no food, no shelter, no healthcare... Instead it's "freeze peach" and corporate personhood.

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  • [–] 16 points 6 hours ago

    Oh, it was a conservative deciding this. This tracks.

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  • [–] 12 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

    Then what is the point of governance?

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  • [–] 9 points 6 hours ago

    Because fuck the common good, right?

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  • [–] 16 points 9 hours ago (1 child)

    Yeah lets wrap this US gov up at this point. No right to clean water and the truth lol.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 hours ago

    Not great but honestly not suprised.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 hours ago

    Oh, will people finally shut up about tap water being safe in the US? I've been saying for years, I'm not drinking something if it tastes bad.

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  • [–] 27 points 16 hours ago

    In some parts of the world, people are thinking about UBI.

    In other parts of the world, having safe drinking water is put into question.

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  • [–] 39 points 17 hours ago (1 child)

    Elections have consequences, everyone who stayed home and allowed Trump to be elected to two terms has enabled this.

    I honestly don’t know if the US will actually be able to recover from those 6 (and counting) years, as an Aussie it feels like we’re watching the equivalent of the Fall of Rome in real time.

    That bastard has managed to isolate you from your allies, line his pockets with billions of dollars, nearly bankrupt your country, destroy your military credibility, pollute your water, air & food, roll back your rights, and so much more.

    It will take at least a generation to undo this damage, and I don’t think there’s enough political will to do what would need to be done to arrest this decline.

    You will likely fall into oligarchy, to become another Russia in my lifetime. Just another regional brute, living off the fear and intimidation you were able to impose on your glory years.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

    I think it depends on how you define "recover". America will never be what it was.

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  • [–] 4 points 6 hours ago

    "old" america is never coming back. it never was. and by 'old' i mean like cold war or obama era, not racist sexist 30's/40's/50's america.

    this 'new'/currrent america might stick around for a bit, but it will be strained. it will get to a point where this new america fully breaks and ceases to exist (full civil war 2) and the country will be broken up. either into 2 new countries or breaking completely and all the states becoming their own country, which will invoke more war as states (and even other countries) fight each other for land and resources.

    'mostly' world paece was amazing while it lasted. but billionairs didn't make enough money

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  • [–] 11 points 17 hours ago

    they want flint to be repeated in every state.

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  • [–] 52 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    "Oh look at me, I'm an entitled American. I want water to drink and to not be lied to. Wha Wha Wha"

    You give people this and they'll start asking for healthcare next instead of just dying in the street with pride.

    Bunch of greedy entitled fucks.

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    [–] 6 points 17 hours ago (5 children)

    This is pretty fucking obvious to anyone who has received a water bill.

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  • [–] 4 points 6 hours ago

    our public utility used to include reports from regular testing in with the bills.. they make them available online now (cost saving, it was a specially-printed multi-page insert before), but it's still public information.

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