Grandfather clause

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"Grandfathered" redirects here. For the TV series, see Grandfathered (TV series).
Not to be confused with the Grandfather rule or the Grandparent rule.

A grandfather clause, also known as grandfather policy, grandfathering, or being grandfathered in, is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases. Those exempt from the new rule are said to have grandfather rights or acquired rights, or to have been grandfathered in. Frequently, the exemption is limited, as it may extend for a set time, or it may be lost under certain circumstances; for example, a grandfathered

retroactively applied
.

Origin

Southern United States

The term originated in late 19th-century legislation and constitutional amendments passed by a number of

African-American slaves and their descendants from voting but without denying poor and illiterate whites the right to vote.[1]
Although these original grandfather clauses were eventually ruled unconstitutional, the terms grandfather clause and grandfather have been adapted to other uses.

The original grandfather clauses were contained in new

state constitutions and Jim Crow laws passed between 1890 and 1908 by white-dominated state legislatures including Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Virginia.[2] They restricted voter registration, effectively preventing African Americans from voting.[3] Racial restrictions on voting in place before 1870 were invalidated by the Fifteenth Amendment
.

After

fusion tickets
in the 1880s and 1890s gained some seats and won some governor positions. To prevent such coalitions in the future, the Democrats wanted to exclude freedmen and other black people from voting; in some states they also restricted poor whites to avoid biracial coalitions.

White Democrats developed statutes and passed new constitutions creating restrictive voter registration rules. Examples included imposition of

literacy tests. An exemption to such requirements was made for all persons allowed to vote before the American Civil War
, and any of their descendants. The term grandfather clause arose from the fact that the laws tied the then-current generation's voting rights to those of their grandfathers. According to Black's Law Dictionary, some Southern states adopted constitutional provisions exempting from the literacy requirements descendants of those who fought in the army or navy of the United States or of the Confederate States during a time of war.

After the

Voting Rights Act.[4] Ratification in 1964 of the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
prohibited the use of poll taxes in federal elections, but some states continued to use them in state elections.

The 1965

Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections
that poll taxes could not be used in any elections. This secured the franchise for most citizens, and voter registration and turnout climbed dramatically in Southern states.

Other contexts

There is also a rather different, older type of grandfather clause, perhaps more properly a grandfather principle in which a government blots out transactions of the recent past, usually those of a predecessor government. The modern analogue may be repudiating public debt, but the original was

King Stephen.[5]

Modern examples

Main article: List of grandfather clauses

See also

References

  1. ^ Greenblatt, Alan (October 22, 2013). "The Racial History Of The 'Grandfather Clause'". Code Switch. NPR. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
  2. ISBN 0-226-84528-1
    .
  3. ^ "Grandfather clause". Concise Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on January 12, 2009. Retrieved September 6, 2009.
  4. ISBN 0-8203-2615-1
    .
  5. ^ Warren, Wilfred Lewis (1973). Henry II. Univ of Calif Press. p. 219.

Further reading

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