Water Expert Sues EPA After She Was Fired for Signing Petition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, June 22, 2026
Contact: Lauren Kurtz (lkurtz@csldf.org / 646-801-0853) and/or
Michael J. Steinberg (mjsteinb@umich.edu / 734-615-2407)
Water Expert Sues EPA After She Was Fired for Signing a Petition
Asserts Free Speech Rights Were Violated
Detroit, Michigan – Today, drinking water expert Elin Warn Betanzo filed a federal lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) alleging that the EPA violated her First Amendment rights when it fired her. Ms. Warn Betanzo is represented by the Civil Rights Litigation Initiative at the University of Michigan Law School (CRLI) and the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF).
“Today I am continuing my fight for safe water by suing the Trump administration for violating my First Amendment right to free speech. The administration fired me and my EPA colleagues to scare public servants into silence. I’ve fought for safe drinking water before, and I will not be intimidated.”
Ms. Warn Betanzo is an accomplished and well-respected drinking water expert who was instrumental in uncovering the Flint water crisis. Before she was removed, Ms. Warn Betanzo was serving on the EPA’s National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC), where she advised the agency on drinking water policy. This was her second term on NDWAC; when her first term ended in 2024, the EPA asked her to return for another three-year term.
In July 2025, Ms. Warn Betanzo signed the “EPA Declaration of Dissent,” a petition addressed to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and signed by hundreds of EPA employees. It criticized recent EPA policies that, as the petition described, undermined the agency’s mission of protecting public health and the environment. Two days after Ms. Warn Betanzo signed the petition, the EPA suspended Ms. Warn Betanzo and over a hundred other petition signatories, declaring that the agency has a “zero tolerance” policy for dissent. The EPA later dismissed Ms. Warn Betanzo and other signatories.
“In the United States, everyone is entitled to exercise their First Amendment right to speak out on matters of public concern such as the environment,” said Dana Chen, a student attorney with CRLI. “By firing dedicated public servants and scientists like Ms. Warn Betanzo, the EPA not only undermines free speech protections, but it also places the public in jeopardy.”
In her complaint, Ms. Warn Betanzo challenges her dismissal and the EPA’s “zero tolerance” policy on the basis that they violate her First Amendment free speech rights, the Administrative Procedures Act, Federal Advisory Committee Act, and Whistleblower Protection Act. The lawsuit, which names the EPA and Administrator Zeldin, seeks an order reinstating Ms. Warn Betanzo and barring the agency from implementing its “zero tolerance” policy against protected speech.
“Ms. Warn Betanzo is one of many public servants, inside and outside of the EPA, who have been retaliated against by the Trump administration for exercising their constitutionally protected free speech rights to express concern about the administration’s policies,” said Lauren Kurtz, an attorney and the executive director of CSLDF. “In filing this lawsuit, she continues the fight to protect not only our drinking water, but our First Amendment freedoms.”
In addition to Chen and Kurtz, Ms. Warn Betanzo is represented by Professor Michael J. Steinberg, director of CRLI; CRLI student attorneys Sarah De Falco and Skylar Parpan; and CSLDF attorneys Chris Marchesano and Jacob Metz-Lerman.
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