Parents of Mexican teen killed by border agent can't sue, SCOTUS rules

(NBC) – A divided Supreme Court ruled the parents of a Mexican teen cannot sue the U.S. Border Patrol agent who killed their son.

Sergio Hernandez died in Mexico in 2010, killed by a bullet the agent fired from the U.S. side of the border separating El Paso, Texas, from Juarez, Mexico.

Stories differ as to whether Hernandez, 15, was playing with friends or throwing rocks at the agent — Jesus Mesa Jr. — when Mesa fired at Hernandez, killing him.

Mexican prosecutors charged Mesa with murder.

The U.S. refused to extradite the agent, and Hernandez’s parents sued.

The court’s conservative five-member majority cited border security and international relations concerns in ruling against the parents.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg though, in the dissenting opinion, writes the suit should go forward because the agent was on U.S. soil when he fired the shot.