Several former officials said they had lingering concerns about the legal underpinnings of the Swift operation.

The legal underpinnings of each are distinct.

While the political impact of the move was unclear, its legal underpinning seemed firm.

The legal underpinnings of those lawsuits were never tested in court.

But when asked to explain the legal underpinnings of the new policy, he distanced himself from the whole process.

Mr. Specter has been the leading Republican voice raising questions about the legal underpinnings of the surveillance programs.

City lawyers said yesterday that the legal underpinnings of the forfeiture plan would not be compromised by a single dismissal.

But today he released a statement saying that the proposal "stretches the legal underpinnings of these types of transactions to the limit."

He spent more than 50 years studying and explaining the legal underpinnings of contracts, whether written or oral, commercial or private.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 became the legal underpinning of equal opportunity in employment.