grandfather clause

noun

plural grandfather clauses

: a clause creating an exemption based on circumstances previously existing

Hospital officials have asked for a grandfather clause for their heliports because without it, proposed zoning regulations would eliminate all city hospital helicopters.

—Dan Donovan

… his plan contained a grandfather clause. The fees would only apply to incoming students.

—Scott Sherman

… a friend, who is a landlord, started talking about "grandfather clauses" that would exempt him from making renovations when she asked him about making an apartment accessible.

—Mary Grimley Mason

specifically : a provision in several southern state constitutions designed to enfranchise poor white people and disenfranchise Black people by waiving high voting requirements for descendants of men voting before 1867

Several states, including Louisiana, North Carolina, and Oklahoma, inserted "grandfather clauses" in their constitutions in order to permit persons, who could not otherwise qualify, to vote if their fathers or grandfathers could vote in 1866.

—John Hope Franklin

Examples of grandfather clause in a Sentence

Because of a grandfather clause, the strict emission standards only apply to new cars.

Recent Examples on the Web

By the turn of the century, Southern states were using poll taxes, literacy tests and grandfather clauses to deny Black men the right to vote, which the Fifteenth Amendment had guaranteed them since 1870. —Essence, 8 Feb. 2025

That was from a legal loophole with literacy and grandfather clauses involving illiterate white men. —Joe Marusak, Charlotte Observer, 5 Feb. 2025

At one time during bargaining, both sides had agreed to language with a grandfather clause that said any G-file material held before the signing of the contract would not be released to the public. —Skye Seipp, Austin American-Statesman, 23 Sep. 2024

The city later agreed to go back to its original language, meaning there would be a grandfather clause. —Skye Seipp, Austin American-Statesman, 23 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1899, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

grandfather clause

noun

: a clause (as in a law or contract) that exempts someone or something from a rule or condition based on previously existing circumstances

Legal Definition

grandfather clause

noun

: a clause creating an exemption (as from a law or regulation) based on circumstances previously existing

specifically : a provision inserted in the constitutions of some southern states after the Civil War requiring high standards of literacy and substantial property qualifications of voters except for descendants of men voting before 1867