The Virginia-based Rutherford Institute has taken up the case of a 15-year old Mexican boy, shot and killed while playing in a culvert, by a US border patrol agent standing just across the border.
The Supreme Court ruled the agent was not immune to a lawsuit seeking damages. But a lower court subsequently decided the teenager had no rights under the Fourth Amendment because he was standing in Mexico. Now the case is back before the Supreme Court.
“For years now, American has been faced with a crisis over what the constitution means and to whom it applies,” said Rutherford Institute Founder John Whitehead. “Thus far the courts have rationalized all matter of human rights abuses by government officials, use of excessive force, torture, waterboarding and so on, as long as those abuses take place outside the United States”
The Rutherford Institute has joined a coalition of human rights organizations insisting the agent and the US government should be held accountable.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case November 12th.