The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 10-to-5 decision, upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit accusing Jackson, Mississippi, officials of worsening lead contamination and then misleading residents about whether the water was safe.

The ruling comes as communities are increasingly resisting data centers. Part of that opposition centers on their enormous water demands and the wastewater their cooling systems can return to local water systems, rendering that water more polluted, harder to treat, and potentially unsafe for reuse.

That broader dispute sharpens the tension at the heart of the case. The Declaration of Independence holds that governments are instituted to secure God-given rights, beginning with life itself. Yet the 5th Circuit has now held that the Constitution provides no remedy when government helps make one of life's most basic necessities unsafe, if not outright poisonous.