CA1: Baby’s momma drama and supervised release

US v. Smith, No. 04-2448 finds that the district court did not abuse its discretion in requiring, as a constitution of supervised release that required him to obey the orders of a probation officer, who then ordered him to stay away from his former girlfriend and their daughter (that is, it was his daughter, too) unless the local probate court agreed .  He had argued that the conditions (i) denies him his fundamental right to associate with family members and (ii) lacks any reasonable relationship to the permissible goals of supervised release.  He really wanted to see the daughter.  But he kept barking up the wrong tree – or going to the wrong school.  Eventually, he found the school, but not the daughter.  A warrant was issued for his arrest.  He argued that the conditions were unconstitutional, but the court holds that the very real interest in protecting the public – including the daughter and her mother from the defendant were enough to trump his interest in visiting his daughter.  DoTD comments here.  SL&P comments here.