Last Filing - Now It's Up to Supreme Court Justices

Yesterday I filed my response to the government's comments on my cert petition before the Supreme Court, over a thirty-four minute detention at a suspicionless interior checkpoint; during which I answered every question asked of me and provided an abundance of identification documents to prove that I was an American citizen legally allowed to be driving inside my own country.  Or as Judge Jennifer Elrod tells the government lawyer in the oral argument above at the 20:13 mark:

He immediately produced his identification.  At minute eleven after he realized that that identification wasn't satisfactory, offered to produce two passports.  That offer was not taken up, and then there was silence.  So I don't understand what he did that contributed to the lengthy time that [the Border Patrol agents] just sat there. 

I have argued that this lengthy time was a violation of the Fourth Amendment.  Despite the clear understanding of the law and facts by Judge Elrod, the two judge majority of the Fifth Circuit panel (both military veterans I'm ashamed to say) ruled that motorists can be stopped inside their country without suspicion of a crime, for as long as agents wish to hold them and without diligently pursuing the limited scope of the stop.

All the legal mumbo jumbo aside, the Fifth Circuit simply ruled that government can violate the rights of any American it does not like.  Put another way, it ruled that Americans have no rights, but rather only privileges, to be extended by armed government agents at their whim, should a person humble and scrape and please them sufficiently.  While that summary won't be found in any Harvard Law School legal journal, it is exactly what the Fifth Circuit ruled in its ever-so-clever hardly "unorthodox" attempt-to-cert-proof way.  Hence my appeal to the Supreme Court.  My response to the government in my cert petition before the high court can be viewed here.

So, the mountain of paperwork has been fully formed.  Now it's up to the eight justices of the Supreme Court to decide whether to hear my case or not.  This is an issue that affects hundreds of millions of Americans each year.  The court's decision should be announced by the end of the month.

Cases brought before the high court have around a one to three percent chance of being heard and decided.

Rynearson Cert Reply