constitutional right
84
4.1
- noun
- /ˌkɒnstɪˈtjuːʃənəl raɪt/
- Formal
:
derecho constitucional
- Students organized a rally to demonstrate their constitutional right to assembly and express their opinions.
- exercise constitutional rights
- violate constitutional rights
- a constitutional right to freedom
We're just saying they don't have constitutional rights.
- We're just saying they don't have constitutional rights.
- Again, we believe recording someone that you're with is a, is a constitutional right.
- And American Samoans, as US nationals, enjoy neither full citizenship rights nor full constitutional rights.
- Now, some say it's unique constitutionally, that we alone have a constitutional right to own and carry firearms.
- But what I'm doing is I am protecting your constitutional rights that you have lost because of rhetoric like this.
- Could you lose constitutional rights by being denaturalized?
- Roe found the abortion right was such a right rooted in an alleged constitutional right to privacy, which also is not mentioned in the Constitution.
- In my opinion against people's I would say constitutional rights.
- They feel so strongly that they cannot think rationally about constitutional rights.
Examples
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Everyone should feel free to exercise their constitutional right to vote in the upcoming election.
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I would like my clients to be able to exercise their constitutional rights.
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And nothing about a constitutional right to a fair hearing?
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When they sent a cop to chase him away, he said it was his constitutional right.
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A woman, for example, may have a constitutional right to an abortion.
Academic text (1993) -
We have a right, a constitutional right, to assemble and be heard!
Fiction book (1994) -
Christians still enjoy the constitutional rights to vote, hold office, speak, exercise their faith, and assemble.
Academic text (2008) -
Free speech is a quintessential constitutional right because it is essential to politics, research, and self-assertion.
Academic text (2017) -
Roe v. Wade, of course, is the key case recognizing a constitutional right to abortion.
Academic text (2017) -
The attorney emphasized that protecting every citizen's constitutional right is fundamental to democracy.
Synonyms
561
3.1
A right the law gives people to be treated equally and have basic freedoms
161
3.0
A state of being just or fair
57
4.6
A basic right protected by law against unfair government action, like freedom of speech or religion
48
3.2
Something a person can do or have because the law allows it
21
3.3
A basic freedom that the law protects and guarantees to people
How Protected
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a right guaranteed by the constitution' is directly and compositionally derived from 'constitutional' (relating to the constitution) + 'right' (an entitlement). This is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common legal composition, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will understand the MWE.
Etymology
Constitutional right comes from the idea of a country's main rulebook, the constitution, which gives a right special protection like a shield. So a constitutional right is a right written into that top rulebook and cannot be taken away by normal laws.