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The FindLaw Legal Dictionary -- free access to over 8260 definitions of legal terms. Search for a definition or browse our legal glossaries.

term:

Ordered Liberty

ordered liberty n

:

freedom limited by the need for order in society NOTE: The concept of ordered liberty was the initial standard for determining what provisions of the Bill of Rights were to be upheld by the states through the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Today the Fourteenth Amendment is generally seen as encompassing all of the guarantees bearing on fundamental fairness that are included in or that arose from the Bill of Rights rather than a small class of provisions essential to ordered liberty.



Source: Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law ©1996. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Published under license with Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.

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