SCOTUSblog by Amy Howe 11/5/2019
In June 2010, 15-year-old Sergio Hernandez was playing on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border when a U.S. Border Patrol agent, Jesus Mesa, fired shots across the border, hitting Hernandez in the face and killing him. Next week Hernandez’s family will be at the Supreme Court for the second time, seeking to hold Mesa responsible for their son’s death.
After Sergio was killed, the Hernandez family filed a lawsuit against Mesa (among others) in federal district court in Texas. The family argued that Mesa had used excessive force against Sergio, violating Sergio’s rights under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The family relied on a 1971 case named Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, in which the Supreme Court allowed a lawsuit seeking money damages from federal officials for violating the Constitution to go forward.
The district court dismissed the family’s claims, and the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld that ruling. In 2017, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case and then sent it back to the lower court for another look in light of Ziglar v. Abbasi, a case from June of that year involving claims against federal officials brought by Middle Eastern men who were in the United States illegally and were detained after the September 11 attacks. In Abbasi, the court concluded that a Bivens remedy should not be extended to a “new context†when there are “special factors counseling hesitation†and when Congress has not affirmatively authorized a suit for damages.
More:
https://www.scotusblog.com/2019/11/argument-preview-justices-to-tackle-cross-border-shooting-case-again/
