"Shocks the Conscience"

A group of New Yorkers is suing the EPA and Christine Todd Whitman, the Director of the agency after 9/11 for providing incorrect and misleading assertions that the area was safe for them to return while airborne contaminants remained present.

A District Court just ruled today that Whitman did not have qualified immunity because "No reasonable person would have thought that telling thousands of people that it was safe to return to lower Manhattan, while knowing that such return could pose long-term health risks and other dire consequences, was conduct sanctioned by our laws."

The article goes on to note that "The EPA's internal watchdog later found that the agency, at the urging of White House officials, gave misleading assurances."

So much for the government keeping us safe from harm.