TRAGIC CASE

SCOTUS Rules Against Mexican Family in Fatal Cross-Border Shooting of Teen

A Mexican teenager was playing with his friends at the Mexico-U.S. border when he was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the family of a Mexican teenager killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in a cross-border shooting cannot seek damages. In a 5-4 vote by a conservative majority, the court reportedly deemed that 15-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernández Guereca did not have constitutional protection in the incident because he was on the Mexico side of the border. Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reportedly wrote the dissent, arguing that the shooting occurred on the U.S. side of the border and therefore Hernández is protected by law. “Neither U.S. foreign policy nor national security is in fact endangered by the litigation,” she wrote. “Moreover, concerns attending the application of our law to conduct occurring abroad are not involved, for plaintiffs seek the application of U.S. law to conduct occurring inside our borders.” The teen and his friends were reportedly playing a game in the Ciudad Juarez on the Mexican side of the border when he was shot. Border Patrol agent Jesus Mesa, Jr. fired two shots at Hernández from El Paso, Texas across the invisible border.