Rational basis reviewIn U.S. constitutional law, rational basis review is the normal standard of review that courts apply when considering constitutional questions, including due process or equal protection questions under the Fifth Amendment or Fourteenth Amendment. Courts applying rational basis review seek to determine whether a law is "rationally related" to a "legitimate" government interest, whether real or hypothetical. The higher levels of scrutiny are intermediate scrutiny and strict scrutiny.
OriginalismeL'originalisme est une théorie de l'interprétation juridique aux États-Unis, qui affirme que la Constitution américaine doit être interprétée en accord avec la signification qu'elle avait à l'époque de sa proclamation. Il s'agit d'une théorie de formalisme juridique, parfois corollaire du textualisme. Ce dernier affirme qu'un texte de loi doit être interprété en fonction de son sens évident et non en fonction de l'intention du législateur ou de quelque autre donnée.
Unenumerated rightsUnenumerated rights are legal rights inferred from other rights that are implied by existing laws, such as in written constitutions, but are not themselves expressly coded or "enumerated" within the explicit writ of the law. Alternative terminology sometimes used are: implied rights, natural rights, background rights, and fundamental rights. Unenumerated rights may become enumerated rights if they necessitate the systematization of positively enumerated rights anywhere laws would become logically incoherent, or could not be adhered to otherwise.
State actorIn United States constitutional law, a state actor is a person who is acting on behalf of a governmental body, and is therefore subject to limitations imposed on government by the United States Constitution, including the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments, which prohibit the federal and state governments from violating certain rights and freedoms. Though the term would seem to include only persons who are directly employed by the state, the United States Supreme Court has interpreted these amendments and laws passed pursuant to them to cover many persons who have only an indirect relationship with the government.
Constitutional rightA constitutional right can be a prerogative or a duty, a power or a restraint of power, recognized and established by a sovereign state or union of states. Constitutional rights may be expressly stipulated in a national constitution, or they may be inferred from the language of a national constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, meaning that laws that contradict it are considered unconstitutional and invalid.
