Fundamental Rights - Legal Meaning

Legal Meaning

Although many fundamental rights are also more widely considered to be human rights, the classification of a right as fundamental invokes specific legal tests used by courts to determine the carefully constrained conditions under which the United States government and the various state governments may impose limitations on these rights. In such legal contexts, as generally determined whether rights are to be considered fundamental by examining the historical foundations of those rights, and determining whether their protection was part of a longstanding tradition. Other rights may be guaranteed as fundamental by individual states.