Bright-line rule

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Look up bright-line rule in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A bright-line rule is a clear-cut, easy to make decision.

In policy debate, it is a topicality standard which argues that the definition is black and white, that one can easily tell whether or not a specific circumstance meets the definition.

In law a bright-line rule, or bright-line test, is a legal precedent or statutory provision which is easy to apply and find how a judge will rule. Bright-line rules are often contrasted with "squishy" balancing tests. There is a sharp division over the validity and use of one in preference for the other. Over the course of the last three decades in many bright-line rules previously established in U.S. jurisprudence have been replaced with balancing tests though some, such as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, feel that bright-line rules are superior.

[edit] Bright Line Rules

Miranda v. Arizona
Goldberg v. Kelly
Storer Doctrine
Bridgeport Music Inc. v. Dimension Films
SEC v. Chenery Corp., 332 U.S. 194 (1947)
National Petroleum Refiners Assn. v. FTC, 482 F.2d 672 (D.C. Cir. 1983), cert. denied, 415 U.S. 951 (1974)
Heckler v. Campbell, 461 U.S. 458 (1983)
Bowen v. Georgetown University Hospital, 488 U.S. 204 (1988)
Sameena, Inc. v. U.S. Air Force, 147 F.3d 1148 9th Cir. (1998)