Latest / The Most Important Question / TMIQ Today: A Right To Clean Water

Transcript

TMIQ Today: A Right To Clean Water · The Most Important Question

• 0:00
  [on-hold music] Welcome back to The Most Important Question Today, where in just a couple minutes or less, we apply the Actually Pro-Life Principles to a news headline and then help you answer the most important question, "What can I do?"
• 0:19
  [on-hold music] This is my water bottle. I take it everywhere. Maybe you have one like it. Like you, I filled mine up out of the tap this morning. Neither of us tested it when we did.
• 0:36
  We probably assumed someone whose job it is had already checked. A family in Jackson, Mississippi said their city let them drink water with lead in. A district court threw the case out.
• 0:47
  Three appeals judges put part of it back. Last Friday, the full Fifth Circuit took it all away again.
• 0:54
  It actually accepted every fact in the complaint as true, but it dismissed it anyways because the test is not actually whether the kids were hurt.
• 1:03
  The test is whether the right is, in its own words, "deeply rooted in this nation's history and tradition." Here's the sentence, "It is undisputed that the Constitution does not guarantee clean water." Undisputed.
• 1:18
  Nobody in that room argued otherwise, not the city, not the family's own lawyers.
• 1:23
  And on whether officials owe you the truth in a public health crisis, the court said that without a historical analog, it couldn't read such a right into the Constitution. So yeah, it's not a thing you inherit.
• 1:35
  It's written down separately or it isn't there. But the good news is there's precedent. People have written it down.
• 1:41
  New York put one sentence on its ballot in 2021, "Each person shall have a right to clean water and air and a healthful environment," and it's in their Constitution now. Ordinary humans put it there.
• 1:53
  So tonight, give to the people doing the work, the Lead Exposure Elimination Project or the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice.
• 2:00
  And remember, the one thing that would make that unnecessary is one sentence in your own state's Constitution. [on-hold music] Thanks for listening.
• 2:15
  Subscribe for more of these and for my longer conversations with incredible humans who've already asked and answered the most important question for themselves.
• 2:23
  You can get more answers for free twenty-four/seven at whatcanido.earth, or you can join hundreds of other important members to support the mission and make your actions go much, much further. [on-hold music]