It’s the latest in a line of cases narrowing the public’s ability to sue federal officials for rights violations.
Highlights
- The owner of the Smuggler’s Inn in Blaine, Washington, can’t sue a Border Patrol agent over a confrontation at his inn.
- Robert Boule says the agent shoved him and then retaliated against him when he complained that the man had used excessive force.
- It’s the latest in a line of cases narrowing the public’s ability to sue federal officials for rights violations.
- The court has consistently declined to expand the kinds of cases, called Bivens actions after the 1971 case, in which a person could sue.
- The case is a magnet for illegal border crossings and a place where drugs have been seized, officials have said.