SCOTUS granted cert. 15-118 Hernandez v. Mesa

This case has to do with the US Governments use of deadly force at the Mexican-American border. See below.

15-118 HERNANDEZ V. MESA

DECISION BELOW: 785 F.3d 117

LOWER COURT CASE NUMBER: 12-50217

QUESTION PRESENTED:

In Boumediene v. Bush, this Court held that the Constitution's extraterritorial application

"turn[s] on objective factors and practical concerns," not a "formal sovereignty-based test."

553 U.S. 723, 764 (2008). That holding is consistent with Justice Kennedy's concurrence two

decades earlier in United States v. Verdugo-Urquidez, 494 U.S. 259 (1990), rejecting four

Justices' formalist approach to extraterritorial application of the Fourth Amendment's warrant

requirement.

The questions presented are:

1. Does a formalist or functionalist analysis govern the extraterritorial application of the

Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unjustified deadly force, as applied to a cross-border

shooting of an unarmed Mexican citizen in an enclosed area controlled by the United States?

2. May qualified immunity be granted or denied based on facts-such as the victim's legal

status

IN ADDITION TO THE QUESTIONS PRESENTED BY THE PETITION, THE PARTIES ARE

DIRECTED TO BRIEF AND ARGUE THE FOLLOWING QUESTION: “WHETHER THE CLAIM

IN THIS CASE MAY BE ASSERTED UNDER

BIVENS v. SIX UNKNOWN FED. NARCOTICS

AGENTS, 403 U.S. 388 (1971).”

CERT. GRANTED 10/11/2016