The Not-So-Hypothetical

Robert Barnes’ piece in the Washington Post today recounts a hypothetical from Justice Breyer at yesterday’s argument in Lozano v. Alvarezinvolving the tolling of the statute of limitations under the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.  Following up on Justice Sotomayor’s hypothetical about the effect of a parent taking a child and concealing them in Peoria, Illinois, Justice Breyer asked (see p.33) about a circumstance where a “mother kidnaps the child” and they “live in a grain elevator, a nicely refurbished grain elevator, in Peoria for a year.”

Because Peoria is my (much-loved) hometown, I happen to have a photo of “a nicely refurbished grain elevator” just outside Peoria.  Peoria is more industrial than agricultural, so there’s many more refurbished warehouses than grain elevators; indeed, this is the only one I know of, which why it warranted a photo.

Edwards Grain Elevator

I hasten to add that the question is very much a hypothetical in the most relevant sense, in that there is no reason whatever to believe that anyone is living there in violation of a custody order.

 

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