legal basis for the decision

President Bush says he understands the legal basis for the decision - without bothering to say what it is - "but I have to give you my personal, emotional response.

The legal basis for the decision probably rests with the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, which bases animal classification as much on habit as anatomy.

His legal basis for the decision initially to assert executive privilege against the Justice Department, he said, was the 1974 Supreme Court case of United States v. Nixon.

The individual losing benefits is not entitled to a trial, but is entitled to an oral hearing before an impartial decision-maker, the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses, and the right to a written opinion setting out the evidence relied upon and the legal basis for the decision.