Alex O. v. Superior Court of San Diego Cty.

In this extraordinary proceeding, a juvenile, who is a United States citizen, lives with his mother in Mexico and admitted smuggling marijuana into the United States. As a condition of probation, the juvenile court ordered that the juvenile not enter the United States except to attend school, work, or visit his family. In addition, the juvenile was ordered to notify his probation officer before he enters the country.

In large measure the conditions imposed on the juvenile are not valid. The court could not expressly banish the juvenile from the United States. Such an express condition would plainly be overbroad and not reasonably related to the juvenile’s underlying smuggling offense. For the same reasons the juvenile court could not impose limits on the purposes for which the juvenile could enter the United States, which limits, taken together with the juvenile’s living arrangements, effectively banished the juvenile from the United States. However, because any border crossing by the juvenile is closely related to the juvenile’s underlying smuggling offense, the court could reasonably require that the juvenile give his probation officer notice of when he enters the…