Also known as: law questions · question of law · legal question
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A disputed legal issue whose resolution is reserved for the court rather than the jury. Resolution turns on the application of legal standards to undisputed facts or on the interpretation of statutes, rules, or constitutional provisions.
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Lillian Locke and Lars Lindstrom each purchased defective software from Lattice Systems and filed separate suits alleging breach of warranty. Their attorneys moved to join the actions under Rule 20. The court granted joinder because the suits presented a shared question whether the warranty disclaimers were enforceable under uniform commercial standards.
Lucy Liu sued Lone Peak Energy for environmental contamination. Lamar Lewis, a neighboring landowner, moved to intervene. The court permitted intervention because Lewis asserted a defense that raised the identical question whether the state environmental statute preempted local ordinances.
Luis Lopez and Lance Lee, a same-sex couple, sought a marriage license in a state that limited marriage to opposite-sex couples. They filed suit claiming a violation of due process and equal protection. The court treated the existence of a fundamental right to marry as a pure question of constitutional law.
Linden Bank, a State A corporation, sued Lakeshore Industries, a State B corporation, in federal court in State A for breach of a loan agreement. The court applied Erie and held that the proper choice-of-law rule was a question of law governed by State A precedent rather than any general federal common law.
Lillian Locke sued a pharmaceutical company after her child suffered birth defects allegedly caused by a prescription drug. The company moved to exclude the plaintiff's expert on causation. The court decided as a question of law whether the expert's methodology satisfied the reliability standards for scientific evidence.
Lars Lindstrom applied to register the mark "The Slants" for his musical group. The Patent and Trademark Office refused registration on disparagement grounds. The court resolved as a question of law whether the First Amendment barred the government from denying registration on that basis.
A question of law asks what legal rule or standard applies or how that rule should be interpreted. A question of fact asks what actually occurred or what inferences should be drawn from the evidence. Courts decide the former. Juries decide the latter when facts are genuinely disputed.
Plaintiffs may join when they assert rights arising from the same transaction or occurrence and when any question of law or fact common to all plaintiffs will arise in the action. The common-question requirement is satisfied even if additional individual issues exist.
…invalidated laws based on the animus toward a class of people. See Romer v. Evans , 517 U. S. 620. Against this background, the legal question of same-sex marriage must be addressed. Pp. 10–15. (2) The nature of marriage is that, through its enduring bond, two persons together can find other freedoms, such as expression,…
…pointed out by Judge Augustus N. Hand in Cole v. Pennsylvania R. Co. , 43 F.2d 953, 956-57, decisions of this Court on common law questions are less likely than formerly to promote uniformity. [^maj-8]: Compare 2 Warren, The Supreme Court in United States History (rev. ed. 1935) 89: "Probably no decision of the Court has ever…
…tend to be not only general, but vague and abstract. This is particularly unfortunate in a case such as this, where the ultimate legal question
…use serves a "public use." To begin with, a court owes no deference to a legislature's judgment concerning the quintessentially legal question of whether the government owns, or the public has a
…"to put an end to her suffering" from a terminal illness was convicted of murder; the "incurable suffering of the suicide, as a legal question
A court may permit intervention when the applicant's claim or defense shares a common question of law or fact with the main action and intervention will not unduly delay or prejudice the existing parties. The common-question test mirrors the standard used for joinder.
Determining whether the Constitution protects a claimed liberty interest requires interpretation of constitutional text, history, and precedent. That interpretive task is reserved for courts because it does not depend on the resolution of disputed historical facts in any single case.
The choice-of-law rule that a federal court must apply in diversity cases is a question of law. The court follows the forum state's choice-of-law rules, which themselves are substantive and therefore binding under Erie.
Yes. The trial court acts as gatekeeper and must decide whether the expert's reasoning and methodology are scientifically valid. That reliability determination is a legal question reviewed on appeal for abuse of discretion.