Summary
U.S. Supreme Court case involving a lawsuit arising from the shooting of a Mexican citizen by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. Sergio Hernández was a juvenile with two prior arrests for alien smuggling when he and other teenagers confronted Agent Jesus Mesa. The facts are disputed. Hernández's parents claim the boys were merely playing a game where they run across the border and touch the fence. Agent Mesa contends that he was stopping a smuggling operation when he was attacked by multiple people throwing rocks. Agent Mesa fired his weapon and killed Hernández, who was across the border in Mexico at the time. There are many acts of Congress that establish remedies for people who claim to have been illegally injured by government agents, but none of them apply in the case of a person who is not a citizen or resident of this country and was injured outside the nation's borders. The question is whether the courts should invent a remedy where Congress has not. CJLF argued that in a case such as this involving relations between the United States and another country, the judicial branch should not step in but should leave the matter to Congress. The Supreme Court decided another case in the same term consistently with CJLF’s position and sent this case back to the Court of Appeals for a decision under the new precedent.
