{"id":22747,"date":"2017-02-22T04:33:36","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T04:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=22747"},"modified":"2017-02-22T05:03:17","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T05:03:17","slug":"justices-weigh-agents-cross-border-shooting-of-mexican-teenager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/justices-weigh-agents-cross-border-shooting-of-mexican-teenager.html","title":{"rendered":"Justices Weigh Agent’s\u00a0Cross-Border Shooting of Mexican Teenager"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJustices Weigh Agent's Cross-Border Shooting of Mexican Teenager<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/h2>\n

\n\tJustices Weigh Agent's Cross-Border Shooting of Mexican Teenager:-<\/strong> In a case that could further roil relations with Mexico, the Supreme Court considered on Tuesday whether the parents of a 15-year-old Mexican boy killed by an American border guard may sue in United States courts.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe teenager, Sergio Hernández Guereca, was on the Mexican side of the border when the guard, Jesus Mesa Jr., standing about 60 feet away in United States territory, shot him in the head.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tA lawyer for the youth’s parents faced two kinds of hurdles at Tuesday’s argument. Even justices sympathetic to the parents appeared to be worried about the implications of a ruling in their favor, which would extend constitutional protections beyond the nation’s borders. And some justices suggested that any solution should come from Congress rather than the courts.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawyer, Robert C. Hilliard, said he sought only a narrow ruling. The Constitution applies abroad, he said, only when the challenged conduct starts in the United States, when the killer and the victim are both civilians, when the constitutional right at issue is the right to life, and when the foreign government supports the suit.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tChief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said that this test as proposed by Mr. Hilliard was opportunistic rather than principled. “That’s a test that, surprisingly, fits the exact facts of your case,” he said with a note of sarcasm.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe chief justice said a ruling in the parents’ favor could have implications in many areas, including “a drone strike in Iraq where the plane is piloted from Nevada.”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tJustice Stephen G. Breyer said the parents had “a very sympathetic case.” But he said it was hard to rule in their favor without considering the decision’s implications for many other cases.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tJustice Samuel A. Alito Jr. pressed Mr. Hilliard along those lines. “You need to give us a principle that is workable,” Justice Alito said.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMr. Hilliard responded that there were special problems on the Mexican border.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“The Border Patrol is 44,000 strong along our southwest border,” he said. “We’ve had 10 shootings across the border.”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe case, Hernandez v. Mesa, No. 15-118, started in 2010, with four Mexican boys playing in the dry bed of the Rio Grande that separates El Paso from Juárez, Mexico. The international borderline, unmarked, runs through the middle of the culvert.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe boys dared one another to run up a concrete incline and touch the barbed wire of the American border fence. Mr. Mesa, the border guard, grabbed one of them.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSergio fled, and he made it back to Mexico before Mr. Mesa shot him.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tA statement issued by the F.B.I. the day after the shooting suggested that Mr. Mesa had been justified in using deadly force because Sergio had thrown rocks at him. But when the Justice Department closed its investigation into the shooting in 2012, it said that “a group of smugglers” had thrown rocks, but it did not accuse Sergio of doing so. Cellphone videos appear to show that he was trying to run and hide.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Mexican authorities charged Mr. Mesa with murder. But the United States has refused to extradite him. The Justice Department declined to prosecute Mr. Mesa, and it said he had not violated government policies concerning the use of force.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the argument on Tuesday, Justice Breyer suggested a way to rule for Sergio’s parents based on the court’s 2008 decision in Boumediene v. Bush, concerning people detained at the military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. That decision allowed detainees to invoke the Constitution based on the United States’ practical control over the naval base there.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe culvert where Sergio was shot could be said to be a similar kind of place, Justice Breyer said. It “is a joint effort of Mexico and the United States,” he said. “So this is not just like a fence. It is an area of two fences, and between those two areas is joint exercise of border maintenance authority.”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tJustice Breyer added that both Mexican and American children played in the culvert.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“The dividing line isn’t even marked on the ground,” Justice Elena Kagan said. “You can’t tell on the ground where Mexico ends and the United States begins.”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tRandolph J. Ortega, a lawyer for Mr. Mesa, said borders mattered. “Wars have been fought to establish borders,” he said. “The border is very real.”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said it was odd that a Mexican boy killed on the American side of the border would have rights while one killed just feet away across the border would not.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, does it, to distinguish those two victims?” she asked.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the argument progressed, it seemed clear that the court’s four more liberal justices were inclined to vote to allow the parents to sue. But it was less certain that they could capture the crucial fifth vote of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who did not seem to think the question was for the courts to decide.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“You’ve indicated that there’s a problem all along the border,” Justice Kennedy told Mr. Hilliard. “Why doesn’t that counsel us that this is one of the most sensitive areas of foreign affairs where the political branches should discuss with Mexico what the solution ought to be?”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tEdwin S. Kneedler, a lawyer for the federal government, agreed. “You have a cross-border incident which necessarily gives rise to foreign relations problems, which are committed to the political branches,” he said.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMexico filed a brief supporting the parents in the case, suggesting that the foreign relations problem in allowing the case to proceed was not obvious. But Justice Alito said the court’s ruling could offend Mexico.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“What would the government of Mexico say if we wrote an opinion that says because the United States spent a lot of money to pave this culvert, we think that the United States’ authority with respect to the culvert is basically the same as the authority that we have in Guantánamo?” Justice Alito asked.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMr. Kneedler said, “I think the Mexican government would be very offended by it.”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tJustice Kagan said the Supreme Court was capable of avoiding that problem. “I’m sure it wouldn’t have to be written that way,” she said, drawing laughter.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSource:- https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/02\/21\/us\/politics\/justices-weigh-agents-cross-border-shooting-of-mexican-teenager.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=us&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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