Salah v. People.

2024 CO 54. No. 23SC4. Right to Familial Association—Sex Offender Intensive Supervision Probation—Due Process Clause.

June 24, 2024

In this case, the Supreme Court considered a sex offender probationer’s challenge to the constitutionality of probation conditions that restricted his ability to contact or live with his minor nephew. The Court rejected Salah’s argument that a biological connection alone is dispositive of whether a probationer has a constitutional right to contact or live with a member of their extended family.

The Court held, instead, that whether a probation condition implicates a sex offender probationer’s constitutional right to familial association with a member of their extended family depends, as a threshold matter, on whether the probationer demonstrates the nature of their relationship with the family member. This threshold showing is necessary so that a trial court reviewing a claim of familial association can determine where on the spectrum of protection the relationship falls.