Having said that, the question in front of the court begins with the man arriving at jail, not with the arrest. Perhaps there's another case that could be made about using arrests in a harassing manner, but I doubt it.

So the justices have to ask themselves a question: which is more important, keeping the system consistent or having compassion for this poor guy?

I'm an analytical person. My money is on keeping the system consistent, even if it's broken and this case is a bad example of what we aspire to be.

The system is screwed up enough as it is without SCOTUS running off and chasing every sob story that comes their way. If the courts start leading with their hearts, then the entire criminal justice system becomes a matter of who can make the best emotional case instead of what the law is. The chaos and harm just moves up to another level of dysfunction. A mostly self-consistent bad system is still better than a mostly inconsistent bad system.

I'm saddened the guy got treated like this. I wish there was some recourse. But in my unlearned, guesswork opinion the outcome is the only one the court had available, no matter how much you and I are disappointed with the larger state of society.