Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-147_g31h.pdf
Page Number: 36.0

12 

EGBERT v. BOULE 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting
Opinion of SOTOMAYOR, J. 

inn had already entered the United States by airplane and 
had been processed by U. S. customs at the airport in New 
York the previous day. 

Nor does this case present special factors similar to those
that deterred the Court from recognizing a Bivens action in 
Ziglar.  In that case, foreign nationals who had been unlaw-
fully present in the United States brought a Bivens action 
against three “high executive officers in the Department of 
Justice”  and  two  wardens  of  the  facility  where  they  had 
been  held.  Ziglar,  582  U. S.,  at  ___  (slip  op.,  at  2).    The 
Court reasoned that allowing the plaintiffs’ claims to pro-
ceed against the executive officers “would call into question
the  formulation  and  implementation  of  a  general  policy,” 
and that the discovery and litigation process would “border 
upon or directly implicate the discussion and deliberations
that led to the formation of the policy in question,” thereby
implicating sensitive national-security functions entrusted 
to Congress and the President.  Id., at ___–___ (slip op., at
17–18).  If  Bivens  liability  were  imposed,  the  Court  ex-
plained, “high officers who face personal liability for dam-
ages might refrain from taking urgent and lawful action in 
a time of crisis,” and “the costs and difficulties of later liti-
gation might intrude upon and interfere with the proper ex-
ercise of their office.”  Ziglar, 582 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 
22).

Here,  Boule  plainly  does  not  seek  to  challenge  or  alter 
“high-level executive policy.”  Id., at ___ (slip op., at 16).  Al-
lowing his claim to proceed would not require courts to in-
trude into “the discussion and deliberations that led to the 
formation” of any policy or national-security decision or in-
terest.  Id., at ___ (slip op., at 18).  Agent Egbert, a line of-
ficer, was engaged in a run-of-the-mill inquiry into the sta-
tus of a foreign national on U. S. soil who had no actual or 
suggested  ties  to  terrorism,  and  who  recently  had  been
through U. S. customs to boot.  See id., at ___ (slip op., at
21)  (distinguishing  a  challenge  to  “individual  instances of