grandfather clause
Old-rule immunity provision
A grandfather clause is a provision that exempts existing situations from new rules or requirements.
Someone or something grandfathered in continues operating under old standards while newcomers must comply with current ones: The zoning law includes a grandfather clause for existing businesses.
The term originated in post-Civil War voting restrictions that exempted men whose grandfathers could vote—a mechanism to disenfranchise Black Americans while protecting white voters.
- poll taxPer-person voting charge
- exemptionRelease from requirement
- special caseInstance warranting distinct treatment
- literacy testsAssessments of reading ability
- disenfranchisementRemoval of voting rights
voting booth · Reconstruction · Fourteenth Amendment · Jim Crow laws · Voting Rights Act · equal protection · civil rights · law · discrimination · carve-out · legal loophole · voter suppression · exclude · policy · constitutional amendment · segregation · voting · bypass
- Exceptionsexception, exemption, exclusion, special case, anomaly
- Voting Rightsvoter registration, voter suppression, voter turnout, voting access, enfranchisement
- Jim CrowJim Crow laws, separate but equal, segregation laws, Plessy v. Ferguson, whites only
- oppressionoppression, tyranny, racism, repression, secret police
- Southern PoliticsDixiecrats, Jim Crow, poll tax, poll taxes, one-party rule
- voting rulesvoter eligibility, voter ID, voter registration, voting age, residency requirement
grandfather clauseno exceptions
Universal application, none spared
grandfather clausefresh start
Opportunity to restart unburdened
clean slate · sunset clause · termination clause · abolition · reset
grand, father, grandfather, clause, paternal, grandfathers, forefather, forefathers, grandfathered