Also known as: jus individuale · individual right · jus in individuo
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A legal entitlement vested in a particular person rather than in a group or the state as a whole. The right is enforceable by the individual holder and does not depend on collective or governmental assertion.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Joanna Jung keeps a loaded handgun in her apartment for protection after a series of break-ins. City officials enforce an ordinance requiring all firearms in residences to be locked and unloaded at all times. Jung sues, asserting that the restriction prevents her from exercising her personal entitlement to armed self-defense inside her own home.
Jennifer Jackson, terminally ill, asks her physician to prescribe medication that would allow her to end her life peacefully. State law criminalizes any assistance in suicide. Jackson brings suit claiming the statute violates her personal liberty interest in making end-of-life medical decisions.
Jorge Juarez faces trial on criminal charges. The prosecutor uses peremptory challenges to remove all male venire members from the jury. Juarez objects that the strikes deny him an impartial jury drawn without unconstitutional gender discrimination.
Jeffrey Jha, an Air Force officer, wears a yarmulke while on duty in violation of uniform regulations. The military orders him to remove it or face discipline. Jha asserts that the regulation burdens his personal religious practice protected by the First Amendment.
James Johnson, age sixty-two, applies for a state university teaching position but is rejected under a policy favoring younger applicants. Johnson sues the state board, claiming the policy denies him equal protection of the laws on the basis of age.
Judy Jacobs, a local resident and taxpayer, objects to a large cross maintained by the state on public property as a war memorial. She files suit asserting that the display violates her personal right to be free from government endorsement of religion.
An individual right belongs to and may be asserted by a single person. A collective right belongs to a group or the public and typically requires group action or governmental enforcement.
Supporting sources
Yes. The Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms for lawful purposes, particularly self-defense in the home.
Supporting sources
Yes. A partner may bring a direct action to enforce the partner's own rights when the injury is personal and not solely derivative of harm to the entity.
Supporting sources
…only on the ground of an interest sufficiently compelling to place within the realm of the reasonable a refusal to recognize the individual right asserted. This approach calls for a court to assess the relative "weights" or dignities of the contending interests, and to this extent the judicial method is familiar to the common law.…