grandfather clause

grandfather clause

n.

1. A provision in a statute that exempts those already involved in a regulated activity or business from the new regulations established by the statute.

2. A clause in the constitutions of several southern states before the year 1915, intended to disfranchise African Americans by exempting from stringent voting requirements all lineal descendants of persons who were registered voters before 1867.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

grandfather clause - an exemption based on circumstances existing prior to the adoption of some policy; used to enfranchise illiterate whites in south after the American Civil War exemption, freedom - immunity from an obligation or duty