Flint water crisis lawsuit can go forward, Supreme Court rules

Flint water crisis.
(Image credit: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

The Supreme Court shot down a petition from Flint, Mich., and local officials who were trying to block a lawsuit spurred by the city's water crisis, Bloomberg Environment reports.

The city and officials have argued they should be immune from being sued and reportedly warned the Supreme Court against allowing the substantive due process of bodily integrity (the right to have one's body free from physical interference) to "be radically expanded to encompass judicially created environmental policy." But it was to no avail — the justices turned away the case without comment, allowing a lawsuit against the city and water regulators to go forward.

The suit claims officials failed to protect residents from exposure to lead, which was found in Flint's water at dangerously high levels following a change in the local drinking water source in 2014. Around 25,000 people have filed lawsuits over the crisis, many of which are expected to go forward in lower courts.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.