From CNN Supreme Court Producer Bill Mears

WASHINGTON -- Justice Antonin Scalia opened the Supreme Court's new term Tuesday by questioning whether a man deported to Mexico would be "abstaining from tequila" for fear of violating his U.S. parole terms, in a case involving a state/federal conflict over the seriousness of drug crimes involving immigrants.

Toledo-Flores was deported in April, his lawyer Timothy Crooks told the justices in oral arguments, but rejected suggestions the case is moot as a result. His client was still subject to "supervised release", a form of parole that, technically at least, could have him under U.S. jurisdictional control over his behavior.

Scalia appeared incredulous. "No one thinks your client is abstaining from tequila for fear of being" sent back to the United States, he said. Supervision "is impossible once he leaves the country. This is an ingenious exercise of the conceivable."

Neither Crooks nor the other justices reacted visibly to Scalia's remarks, and there was no immediate reaction from immigrant rights activists, many of whom were in the courtroom.