ACLU Comment on Supreme Court Ruling in Cross-Border Shooting Case

WASHINGTON — In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that a family of a Mexican teenager killed in a cross-border shooting cannot sue the agent for damages under the Constitution.

The ACLU has a similar case on behalf of the family of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez. In 2012, a Border Patrol agent aiming through the border fence shot and killed Jose Antonio, an unarmed 15-year-old, as he stood on a street in his hometown of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. The ACLU was amicus in the case decided today.

ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, who argued the ACLU’s cross-border shooting case, had the following reaction to the ruling:

“The gravity of this ruling could not be clearer given the Trump administration’s militarized rhetoric and policies targeting people at the border. Border agents should not have immunity to fatally shoot Mexican teenagers on the other side of the border fence. The Constitution does not stop at the border.”

Ruling: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/17-1678_m6io.pdf

More details: https://www.aclu.org/cases/hernandez-v-mesa