High-ranking officials claim immunity over poisonous water

FOR 18 months in 2014 and 2015 the inhabitants of Flint, a poor city in Michigan, drank tap water that was contaminated with lead and potentially lethal bacteria. Now comes the reckoning. Many legal actions have been launched, some of which raise a hard question: to what extent can government officials be held accountable for their actions on the job?

Three types of lawsuits have been filed over the past couple of years. The first consists of actions by citizens and environmental groups focused on government enforcement of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), a federal law from 1974. The second group includes criminal lawsuits against 15 government employees, including Nick Lyon, the director of Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services. The third type is a civil class-action lawsuit against government officials, which is being heard in a district court.