My SCOTUSBlog recap and the transcript. A couple of moments of levity, which I used in the headline. The first involves Gorsuch saying the Smuggler’s Inn “has been disparaged in its quality today” and Boule’s counsel interjecting “unfairly.” The second involves Alito, asking why Boule told Egbert about his arriving guest and wondering what he might do if “one of us was going to check in” and Kagan adding “suspicious characters,” which made Alito laugh.
I do not predict these things because I always get them wrong. But the argument went better for Boule than I expected. Everyone pushed Egbert’s counsel and the U.S. about how this case differs from an ordinary 4th Amendment Bivens claim and did not push back much on Boule’s argument that the analysis ends when events occur near the border. I do not know if that means Boule wins. But they seemed to be wrestling with the mess they created in Abbassi.
Posted by Howard Wasserman on March 3, 2022 at 09:58 AM