Definition
A provision that exempts people or entities already engaged in an activity from new regulations, often creating two-tier systems. Originally designed to disenfranchise Black voters, now mainly used to protect existing businesses from inconvenient rules.
Example Usage
The new zoning law included a grandfather clause allowing existing gas stations to remain, even in the newly designated residential zone.
Origin
Post-Reconstruction South (1890s), exempting voters whose grandfathers could vote before the Civil War, thus excluding Black citizens
Fun Fact
The Supreme Court struck down grandfather clauses for voting in 1915, but the term persists as a standard legislative technique, divorced from its racist origins.
Related Terms
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See “grandfather clause” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.
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