U.S. Court of Appeals protects government, not citizens

Says that the statute of limitations for false imprisonment starts when you’re initially falsely imprisoned, not when you’re released.

In this case, a U.S. citizen was falsely imprisoned for 3 years by ICE, which accused him of being a non-citizen despite his repeated assertions to the contrary including copies of his father’s naturalization certificate and his birth certificate showing otherwise. A Federal court ordered that he be paid damages for his false imprisonment. The court of appeals overturned that order, stating that the clock on the statute of limitations started ticking when he was imprisoned, not when he was released. Even though it took three years for him to prove false imprisonment in the first place so that he could be released.

So it appears that if the U.S. government wishes to avoid paying damages for false imprisonment, all they have to do is drag the case out for more than two years, and any award granted will be overturned because the statute of limitations has run out.

Yeesh.

If California courts followed that reasoning, that the statute of limitations starts ticking when the crime starts, not when the crime ends, all I’d have to do is kidnap a kid, hold her for 10 years and 1 day, and then I’d be home free because the statute of limitations in California is 10 years so I couldn’t be prosecuted for kidnapping. If that seems fair or right to you, you’re a loon.

– Badtux the Disgusted Penguin