Also known as: rights of the people · people's right · collective right · popular right
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A constitutional phrase identifying individual rights retained by citizens that government may not abridge without justification.
Rajesh Rao organized a peaceful rally outside city hall to protest a new tax. City officials denied the permit citing traffic concerns. Rao sued, claiming the denial violated the right of the people to assemble and petition for redress. The court held that the officials had impermissibly burdened an individual right protected by the First Amendment.
Regina Robinson kept business records in a padlocked shed on her hemp farm. Officers entered without a warrant and cut the lock during a compliance check. Robinson moved to suppress the seized documents. The court ruled that the forced entry violated her right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches under the Fourth Amendment.
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Rhea Reynolds kept a handgun in her apartment for self-defense. A city ordinance banned all handgun possession in residences and required other firearms to remain disassembled. Reynolds challenged the ordinance. The court struck it down because the law destroyed the core individual right of the people to keep and bear arms for lawful purposes.
Robert Rivera faced a murder charge in state court without a grand jury indictment. He argued that due process required the same procedural protections available in federal court. The court rejected the claim, explaining that the right of the people to make their own laws allows states to adopt different but fundamentally fair procedures.
Rachel Ramirez and her husband received counseling from a state clinic that reported their private medical information. They sued, asserting a constitutional privacy interest. The court recognized that the right of the people, reflected in the Fourth Amendment and other provisions, creates zones of privacy that government may not invade without justification.
Ravi Reddy's apartment was searched by federal agents without a warrant or probable cause. Agents seized personal papers and effects. Reddy sued the agents individually for damages. The court held that the violation of the right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches supports a damages action under federal law.
The phrase refers to individual rights. Each constitutional use of the term unambiguously identifies personal liberties belonging to all citizens rather than rights exercisable only through a corporate or governmental body.
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The right protects an individual's ability to keep and bear arms for self-defense in the home. Regulations that categorically ban common arms or render all firearms inoperable for immediate use violate this individual right.
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The right protects an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy in personal files even when stored on employer-owned equipment. Password protection and company policies permitting personal use can preserve that expectation against warrantless government access.
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The right requires a judicial warrant supported by probable cause before officers may search a locked dorm room for evidence of crime. Administrative approval by university officials does not substitute for the particularized judicial determination demanded by the Fourth Amendment.
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…opinion) (slip op., at 8–10) (citations and footnotes omitted). III Today’s decision usurps the constitutional right of the people to decide whether to keep or alter the traditional understanding of marriage. The decision will also have other important consequences. It will be used to vilify Americans who are…