Fundamental rights are a group of rights deemed to be basic, foundational entitlements. In the United States, the recognition of such rights has changed over time; they generally are coterminous with the rights listed in the Bill of Rights, although not all enumerated rights are fundamental. That some of the enumerated rights are fundamental and others are not reveals how fundamental rights can come from two sources. First, they are rights enumerated in the US Constitution, and include, for example, the right to equal protection and to vote as well as the freedoms of thought, speech, association, and religion. Second, they can be unenumerated rights that the Supreme Court has nevertheless deemed as fundamental, and these would include, as examples, the individual right to procreate, raise children, privacy, and marry (see Levesque 2007, 2008). Regardless of their sources, they must be recognized as such by the Supreme Court, and the Court’s views of some rights qualifying as...
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References
Bellotti v. Baird (1979). 443 U.S. 622.
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Levesque, R. J. R. (2007). Adolescence, media and the law. New York: Oxford University Press.
Levesque, R. J. R. (2008). Rethinking child maltreatment law: Returning to first principles. New York: Springer.
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Levesque, R.J.R. (2011). Fundamental Rights. In: Levesque, R.J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_674
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