Not always. Since around the time of Reagan, the word legal has meant to be whatever the conservative elites want. They have gone to great lengths to corrupt the highest courts in the country.
So conservatives said, all right, if that's the way the game is played, then we need to own the Supreme Court. And here we are.
Don't act like the game started with Reagan. It didn't. It's just that the other side was thoroughly winning before then.
I argue conservatives started it with Citizens United. Thereby making the democracit process a game of who kisses the ring of the most billionaires.