lawfully

comparative more lawfully · superlative most lawfully

1. Conforming to the law; legally.

   This grand ceremony was immediately followed by a proclamation expreſsly forbidding the Abyſſine clergy, monks, and prieſts, to perform any prieſtly functions till they were previouſly examined and approved by the patriarch ; there being ſome reaſon to doubt whether they had been lawfully examined.

   1781, C. Bathurst, The Modern Part of an Universal History From the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time, volume 12, page 264

   1 more example

   He was sent to Guantánamo in 2002, and Judge Kollar-Kotelly found that from the beginning of his stay, “there is no evidence in the record that anyone directed any allegations toward al-Rabiah nor any indication that interrogators believed al-Rabiah had engaged in any conduct that made him lawfully detainable.”

   2009 September 26, The Associated Press, “Kuwaiti Ordered Released From Guantánamo Bay”, in The New York Times

   Synonyms: licitly, legally, legitimately, licitly