It is safe to assume that most American citizens take access to clean water for granted. For many decades, the water we all drink has been relatively free of dangerous contaminants like lead. Several years ago, residents of Flint learned the hard way not to take the water for granted when many of them grew ill from the city’s contaminated water supply.
One public official tried to put a stop to the problem early on by blowing the whistle on the city’s negligence in cleaning the water supply. According to the whistleblower, a former city administrator, she was fired wrongfully from her position after alleging that the mayor of Flint “routed donations given to help the city with its water crisis to a personal account.”
The former administrator tried once before to file a Whistleblower Protection Act lawsuit against Flint. However, her case was “dismissed with prejudice” in 2017. In 2018, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overruled the dismissal and the whistleblower case is now about to begin.
According to a news source, jury selection in the case is set to begin this week. The former city official will now get the opportunity to tell her story to a Detroit court. This marks an important moment to the whistleblower and to the residents of Flint.
This case is also an event of significant importance to the rest of the nation as well. It shows how a single individual can call out wrongdoing in a legal setting. A desire to make things right can hold a lot of sway in the judicial system, especially when supported by a legal representative who shares in this desire.