Word.ws English Dictionary

Palko test

Palko test noun: a judicial test as to whether a US state is bound by the United States Bill of Rights in relation to a specific right claimed by the plaintiff, hinging on whether the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution override the immunity which ordinarily applies to states; specifically, the right in question must be "of the very essence of a scheme of ordered liberty" and "deeply rooted in [American] history and tradition" in order to qualify.

Noun

Palko test (plural Palko tests)

  1. (US) A judicial test as to whether a US state is bound by the United States Bill of Rights in relation to a specific right claimed by the plaintiff, hinging on whether the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution override the immunity which ordinarily applies to states; specifically, the right in question must be "of the very essence of a scheme of ordered liberty" and "deeply rooted in [American] history and tradition" in order to qualify.
    • The Palko test was stated and has heretofore been taken as a definition (of questionable contemporary vitality) of due process generally, not of privacy.1994, Jules L. Coleman, Anthony James Sebok, Constitutional Law and Its Interpretation, page 231
    • Moreover, the court determined that, even under a Palko test, the right to privacy in Montana includes consensual same-sex relations when it stated: […]2000, Kentucky Law Journal, volume 89, page 1176

Forms of Palko test

pluralPalko tests

Origin of Palko test

From the case of Palko v. Connecticut (1937), after Frank Palko, a Connecticut resident charged with murder.

Questions about Palko test

What does Palko test mean?
Palko test means a judicial test as to whether a US state is bound by the United States Bill of Rights in relation to a specific right claimed by the plaintiff, hinging on whether the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution override the immunity which ordinarily applies to states; specifically, the right in question must be "of the very essence of a scheme of ordered liberty" and "deeply rooted in [American] history and tradition" in order to qualify.
What part of speech is Palko test?
Palko test is a noun.
What is the plural of Palko test?
The plural of Palko test is Palko tests.

Words near Palko test in the dictionary

  1. palkigari
  2. palkigharries
  3. palkigharry
  4. palkis
  5. Palko
  6. Palko test
  7. Palko tests
  8. Palkos
  9. pall
  10. pall inverted
  11. pall mall

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Palko test (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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