Flint Residents Sue For Constitutional Violations

Flint residents filed class action lawsuits in both federal and state court for damages caused by the water crisis. In federal court, they brought claims that the malfeasance of government officials violated their rights under the United States Constitution. The district judge dismissed the federal lawsuit, ruling that the residents’ constitutional claims were preempted by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). On appeal, the ACLU of Michigan and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Sixth Circuit arguing that Congress never intended to strip citizens of the right to seek a remedy under the Constitution when it enacted the SDWA. In 2017 the Sixth Circuit agreed and reinstated the federal damages claims. Meanwhile, in state court, the plaintiffs brought claims arguing that the state violated their right to bodily integrity in violation of the Michigan Constitution by switching the city’s water source to the Flint River and deceiving the public about its toxicity. The state sought dismissal of the lawsuit, arguing that there is no constitutional right to bodily integrity, that the state was immune from suit, and that damages were not available for violations of the state constitution. When the case reached the Michigan Supreme Court, we again joined NRDC in filing a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the plaintiffs. In July 2020 the Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiffs’ claims could go forward. In 2021 the parties reached a $600 million settlement. (Mays v. Snyder; Mays v. Governor; ACLU Attorneys Bonsitu Kitaba-Gaviglio and Dan Korobkin; co-counsel Dimple Chaudhary, Kaitlin Morrison, Sarah Tallman, Jared Knicley, and Jared Orr of NRDC, and Nicholas Leonard of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center.)