Diana I. Reismann Sexton v. Fort Bend County, Texas, et al.

Whether a visiting federal judge’s ultra vires issuance of a child-custody and property order in a Texas state family­ law proceeding, in excess of the limited authority conferred by 28 U.S.C. §§ 294 and 371, combined with the subsequent forcible separation of a mother from her child and the infliction of severe physical and mental suffering by county officials acting without any judicial order, violates peremptory norms of international law (jus cogens) and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).

Whether systematic alteration of court orders, deletion or editing of surveillance video, and fabrication of records by state judges and county counsel after a litigant reports irregularities to the Federal Bureau of Investigation constitute fraud upon the court under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(3) that voids subsequent dismissals and requires independent federal scrutiny.

Whether a dual-national mother and her Argentine-born child possess an enforceable right under CAT Articles 1, 2, 4, 13 and 14, and under the Alien Tort Statute, 28 U.S.C. §1350, and 42 U.S.C. §1983, to an independent investigation and full reparation when public officials, acting under color of law, inflict tactical tortures, permanent physical injuries, and threats against the child without any valid judicial authorization.

Whether fraudulent, ultra vires, or otherwise spoiled judicial acts or rulings in domestic-relations cases in lower state or federal courts that result in the infliction of torture or other violations of peremptory norms (jus cogens) against an innocent parent or child can ever be treated as valid due process when the parent was present in the courtroom with the child, had not attempted to flee, and was simply exercising the right to report judicial irregularities; or whether, because courts exist as administrators of justice and not as instruments of punishment or torture, such rulings and the resulting acts or false cases against a parent or a child must be declared void ab initio and the responsible government employees removed from office for conduct that exceeds any claim of excessive force and violates non-derogable international obligations binding on the United States.

Whether the practical absence of an effective civil remedy in Texas for victims of official torture, resulting from the combination of qualified immunity, sovereign immunity, procedural barriers, and the knowing enforcement of an ultra vires judicial order, violates the United States’ obligations under Articles 2, 13, and 14 of the Convention Against Torture to ensure prompt investigation and full reparation for acts of torture committed under color of state law.