raison d'etat

Noun

raison d'état

1. A state interest, especially when invoked as politically superior to moral or even legal considerations.
   • The law as created by the Supreme Court has been nay-saying in fact and in effect, stating in specific instances a series of "thou shalt nots." Not entirely, to be sure, as the cases illustrating raison d'état in American constitutional law tend to indicate, but enough to make the generalization...1975, Philip B. Kurland, editor, The Supreme Court and the Judicial Function