U.S. Supreme Court shields border agent in killing of unarmed teenager in Mexico

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Tuesday shielded a U.S. border agent from being sued for shooting and killing an unarmed teenager standing on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.

Ending a 10-year legal battle, the justices by a 5-4 vote said neither Congress nor the Constitution clearly authorized damage suits over incidents and injuries that occur beyond U.S. borders.

The ruling in Hernandez vs. Mesa provides a stark example of the court’s determination to limit damage suits against government officials.

The case began in 2010 when 15-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez was playing a dangerous game with several friends in the dry culvert that separated El Paso from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The boys ran up the embankment on the U.S. side, touched the border fence and then ran back to the Mexican side.

Agent Jesus Mesa, riding a bike, came upon the boys. He pulled out his gun and fired two fatal shots at one of the teenagers who was standing on the Mexican side of the border. Mesa later claimed that the boys had pelted him with rocks.

The Justice Department investigated the shooting but brought no charges against the agent. The U.S. also refused to extradite him to Mexico.

The teenager’s parents then filed a wrongful death suit, alleging the agent had violated the 4th Amendment’s ban on “unreasonable searches and seizures” and the 5th Amendment’s protection against depriving someone of “life ... without due process of law.”

Ever since, the federal courts have gone back and forth on whether the parents’ suit could proceed. The Supreme Court took up the case once before, but in 2017 sent it back to Texas without reaching a final decision.

While the Constitution protects the rights of individuals from actions by the government, the court has said that it is up to Congress to decide whether victims are entitled to win damages for violations. After the Civil War, Congress said states and local governments can be forced to pay for violating constitutional rights. But the situation is less clear for federal agents.

Speaking for the court Tuesday, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. explained the “Constitution’s separation of powers requires us to exercise caution before extending” liability and claims for damages “to a new context, and a claim based on a cross-border shooting is markedly new ... and has foreign relations and national security implications.”