rationale

This serves as the background rationale for a wide range of voter-suppression efforts and extra-legal intimidation tactics.

Wade' until he belatedly realized it wasn't popular, at which point he came up with his fatuous rationale that "everyone wanted it to go back to the states."

In the grey matter and guts alike, the rationale felt right.

Really, there is no moral rationale for celebrating your team’s win knowing that, somewhere, a child is crying as a result.

Vought laid out how his think tank is crafting the legal rationale for invoking the Insurrection Act, a law that gives the president broad power to use the military for domestic law enforcement.