Also known as: at-large
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
A state of being free from custody or control. The condition applies when a person or animal escapes confinement or remains unapprehended after committing an offense.
A state of being free from custody or control. The condition applies when a person or animal escapes confinement or remains unapprehended after committing an offense.
Police respond to a shooting at a public park. The victim identifies the shooter but officers learn the gunman fled on foot and remains unapprehended. Because the perpetrator is still at large, the court finds the primary purpose of the interrogation was to address an ongoing emergency, rendering the victim's statements nontestimonial.
A city zoning ordinance limits unrelated persons living together. Property owners challenge the rule as violating substantive due process. The court refuses to roam at large in the constitutional field and instead anchors its analysis to longstanding traditions rather than personal policy preferences.
The body of citizens as a whole. This sense identifies interests or effects shared across an entire community rather than by specific individuals.
After the House passes a revenue bill and the Senate concurs with amendments, the President returns it with objections. The originating House must enter those objections at large on its journal before reconsidering the measure. The clerk records every sentence of the veto message verbatim so members can review the full text during the override debate.
During a declared war, Congress enacts a statute directing all citizens to seize enemy vessels. Private ship owners interpret the law as freeing subjects at large to attack enemy property without further sovereign commission. The court holds the statute supplies the necessary general order under the law of nations.
The body of citizens as a whole. This sense identifies interests or effects shared across an entire community rather than by specific individuals.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
When a perpetrator remains at large after an incident, courts treat statements made to police as nontestimonial if the primary purpose was to resolve an ongoing emergency. The unknown location of the suspect is one factor courts weigh under the primary-purpose test.
In due process cases the phrase warns judges against roaming at large without anchoring analysis to tradition or text. This usage signals judicial restraint rather than describing physical freedom or the general public.
No. Article I, Section 7 requires that presidential objections be entered at large on the journal, meaning recorded in full detail. The phrase denotes completeness of the entry rather than any reference to the public or freedom from restraint.
A state statute bans contraceptive use by married couples. Challengers argue the law invades a right not enumerated in the Bill of Rights. The court determines whether the asserted liberty is so rooted in the traditions and collective conscience of the people at large that it ranks as fundamental.
A magazine publishes an article accusing a private attorney of communist affiliations. The attorney sues for defamation. The court holds that the constitutional privilege extends to criticism of nonpublic persons who shape events in areas of concern to society at large, requiring the plaintiff to prove actual malice.
A private plaintiff may face the actual-malice standard if the defamatory statements concern matters of general or public interest that affect society at large. The extension protects speech on issues that transcend purely private disputes.
…White) I believe the decision of the Court represents poor constitutional law and entails harmful consequences for the country at large. How serious these consequences may prove to be only time can tell. But the basic flaws in the Court's justification seem to me readily apparent now once all sides of the problem are…