More on this case can be found at
https://holdcbpaccountable.org/2016/08/09/cervantes-v-united....
The real life story is pretty sickening: an ~8 hour ordeal starting with the CDP saying "we think you have drugs" and forcibly sending an 18 year old girl to the hospital for an x-ray, in handcuffs, where she is instead invasively strip searched (with the CDP and hospital staff in audience). Nothing is found so they eventually let her go.
The court basically ruled that:
- The CDP did its job "correctly". They just need to think you did something wrong to detain you and force you to accept medical interventions.
- This was the wrong way to sue: the plaintiff must seek state-law tort action against the doctor for malpractice.
Most disturbing to me is considering just is how many people were party to whole affair, and how easily a routine, but ill-fated encounter with authority can go so wrong.
I can only hope that additional legal remediation brought some kind of justice and relief. Maybe this is yet another example of how contorted US law practice can be.
I'm not holding my breath.
