Witness Seized on Immigration Suspicions Can Pursue Lawsuit

A man who was arrested at a Billings, Mont., courthouse after another witness testified he wasn’t in the U.S. legally can pursue his Fourth Amendment case against the officials responsible, because the Ninth Circuit said.

Miguel Reynaga Hernandez served as a witness at a hearing about his wife Jane’s request for an order of protection against Rachel Elizondo. During her testimony Elizondo stated that Reynaga was “not a legal citizen,” and made a similar statement about another witness. Pedro Hernandez, the justice of the peace presiding over the hearing, told his staff to call for a sheriff’s deputy.

The justice ...