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Name: People v. Salazar-Merino
Case #: A090898
Opinion Date: 05/29/2001
Division: 3
Citation: 89 Cal.App.4th 590
Summary

Penal Code section 114, which prohibits using a false document to conceal one’s true citizenship or resident alien status, is not unconstitutionally vague. The statute is clear on its face and the court refused to read into the statute a requirement that the concealment be in an attempt to obtain public benefits. Penal Code section 114 does not violate substantive due process. It is reasonably related to the proper legislative goal of punishing the criminal conduct it proscribes. Penal Code section 114 is severable from the unconstitutional provisions of Proposition 187 (of which it is part). Penal Code section 114 also is not preempted by federal law as an attempt to regulate immigration.