Opinion ID: 3047693
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Breadth of the Fundamental Right

Text: [12] Glucksberg instructs courts to adopt a narrow definition of the interest at stake. See 521 U.S. at 722 (“[W]e have a tradition of carefully formulating the interest at stake in substantive-due-process cases.”); see also Flores, 507 U.S. at 302 (noting that the asserted liberty interest must be construed narrowly to avoid unintended consequences). Substantive due process requires a “careful description of the asserted fundamental liberty interest.” Glucksberg, 521 U.S. at 721 (quotation and citations omitted). RAICH v. GONZALES 3047 Glucksberg involved a substantive due process challenge to Washington state’s ban on assisted suicide. See id. at 705-06. The Court in Glucksberg rejected the suggestion that the interest at stake was the “right to die” or “the right to choose a humane, dignified death,” and instead held that the narrow question before the Court was “whether the ‘liberty’ specially protected by the Due Process Clause includes a right to commit suicide which itself includes a right to assistance in doing so.” Id. at 722-23. Another case that considered and rejected several asserted fundamental rights involved unaccompanied alien juveniles who are in the custody of immigration authorities. See Flores, 507 U.S. at 294. The Flores Court rejected the proposed fundamental right of “freedom from physical restraint” because it was not an accurate depiction of the true issue in the case. See Flores, 507 U.S. at 302. The Court also rejected the formulation of the “right of a child to be released from all other custody into the custody of its parents, legal guardian, or even close relatives.” Id. Instead, the Flores Court examined the narrow “right of a child who has no available parent, close relative, or legal guardian, and for whom the government is responsible, to be placed in the custody of a willing-and-able private custodian rather than of a government-operated or government-selected child-care institution.” Id.; see also Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, 578 (2003) (recognizing narrowly defined fundamental right to engage in consensual sexual activity, including homosexual sodomy, in the home without government intrusion).