at issue

1. In question, under discussion; also, to be decided. For example, Who will pay for the refreshments was the point at issue . [Early 1800s]

2. In conflict, in disagreement, as in Physicians are still at issue over the appropriate use of hormone therapy . This usage, from legal terminology, was defined by Sir William Blackstone ( Commentaries on the Laws of England , 1768), who said that when a point is affirmed by one side and denied by the other, “they are then said to be at issue .”

Example Sentences

It’s very clear that this was the Roberts court trying to put Section 2 of the VRA’s constitutionality at issue.

From Slate

This immunity applies even when statutes passed by Congress and signed by a president make it a crime to engage in the presidential conduct at issue.

From Slate

The flyer at issue did not overtly tell voters to vote no, but it listed groups that opposed it, including the police board and NAACP, and it quoted a state judge’s ruling that the ballot language was misleading and unfair.

From Salon

And the court didn’t actually kick out the lung float test because it wasn’t at issue in the appeal.

From Slate

The National Science Foundation’s “suspension of the grants at issue here is vacated,” wrote Lin, of the Northern District of California.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• debatable 
• problematic 
• unresolved 
• unsettled