1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

The Fifth Circuit's September 4 ruling that clean drinking water is not a constitutional right should be a wake-up call. Jackson, Mississippi residents were poisoned by lead-contaminated water, lied to by city officials about its safety, and then told by a federal court that none of it violated their rights. That is an unacceptable gap in the law, and Congress needs to close it. The court's own dissent, written by Judge Catharina Haynes and joined by four colleagues, found that Jackson residents stated a plausible claim that the city violated their right to bodily integrity. The majority's answer was to tell residents to vote for better local officials. That is not a remedy. Water is not a luxury — it is the most basic condition for staying alive, and no American should have to sue under a patchwork of legal theories just to hold their government accountable for poisoning them. Sponsor and advance federal legislation that explicitly guarantees every American's right to clean, safe drinking water. The courts have made clear they won't act. That makes this Congress's responsibility.