# What is meant by the term "threshold issue"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 28, 2015, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-the-term-threshold-issue/726380 "2015-07-28T11:58:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2015, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-the-term-threshold-issue/726380/1 "2015-07-28T11:58:48Z")
Hi I came across the term “threshold issue” in the following context. What does it mean in a legal context? I look forward to your feedback. davidmich > **[How Leonardo DiCaprio’s ‘The Revenant’ Shoot Became “A Living Hell”](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/how-leonardo-dicaprios-revenant-shoot-810290/)** > > Crew defections, brutal cold, a global search for snow and even a naked actor dragged on the ground — ‘Birdman’ director Alejandro G. Inarritu responds to critics of his ambitious metho… “While weather undeniably was a huge obstacle, several crewmembers say a threshold issue was a failure to understand, as one puts it, “what a period film outdoors on this scale was really going to cost.” Given cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki’s decision only to use natural light, there was a short window each day when the production could film.” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2015, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-the-term-threshold-issue/726380/2 "2015-07-28T12:26:31Z")
A far as I understand it, a threshhold issue is something that occurs as an initial obstacle to all other progress on a matter, but only needs addressing once, then it is done. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-the-term-threshold-issue/726380/3 "2015-07-28T17:21:13Z")
It’s not a legal term of art, exactly, but it’s often used to describe a question which controls the resolution of other questions. For example, Judge O’Connor used it in exactly that sense in _Agostini_: > [@](#): > > Respondents counter that, because the costs of providing Title I services off-site were known at the time Aguilar was decided, and because the relevant case law has not changed, the District Court did not err in denying petitioners’ motions. Obviously, if neither the law supporting our original decision in this litigation nor the facts have changed, there would be no need to decide the propriety of a Rule 60(b)(5) motion. Accordingly, we turn to the threshold issue whether the factual or legal landscape has changed since we decided Aguilar. > > Agostini v. Felton, 521 U.S. 203, 216, 117 S.Ct. 1997, 2007 (1997). In other words, one party took the position that the entire case was subject to settled law, and the court should apply that law. If that was true, the appeal could be denied. If it was not true, the court would have to look at the changes in the law to decide whether the appeal should be denied or not. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2015, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-the-term-threshold-issue/726380/4 "2015-07-28T21:36:41Z")
Think of it this way - if you don’t pass the threshold, you don’t get to the rest of the arguments/rest of the case. So, something like jurisdiction or standing can be a threshold issue. Or various legal schemes have initial steps which rule out clearly meritless claims. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-the-term-threshold-issue/726380/5 "2015-07-29T04:09:18Z")
Think of what “threshold” means by itself. It’s the bottom of a door, it’s both gateway and lowest-level. As lowest level, we get expressions such as “threshold for pain”; as gateway, we get “walking over the threshold of your new house”. In the case of the OP, the requirement to eschew artificial lighting 1. turned out to produce a ton of other requirements; was before them in the way that a house’s gate is before the house 2. raised the threshold value (the minimum - it’s used in this way in economics for example) for filming time, therefore raising the threshold value for expenses such as salaries and hotels 3. and yeah, it was a damn big issue or, as it’s known by other people, a problem. Not every two words that go together in a sentence ever are a term, sometimes they actually can be understood by checking out what each one means. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-the-term-threshold-issue/726380/6 "2015-07-29T05:02:01Z")
In assessing whether a car is safe to drive on the highway, one threshold issue is whether it has wheels.