Editing Grandfather clause

{{Short description|Provision in which existing cases are exempt from a new rule which will apply to future cases}}
{{Redirect|Grandfathered|the TV series|Grandfathered (TV series)}}
{{Distinguish|text=the [[Grandfather rule]] or the [[Citizenship of the United States#Pathways to citizenship|Grandparent rule]]}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2014}} 
{{Globalize|1=article|2=United States|date=April 2025}}
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 [[Power station|power plant]] might be exempt from new, more restrictive pollution laws, but the exception may be revoked and the new rules would apply if the plant were expanded. Often, such a provision is used as a [[compromise]] or out of practicality, to allow new rules to be enacted without upsetting a well-established logistical or political situation. This extends the idea of a rule not being [[Ex post facto|retroactively applied]].

==Origin==

=== Southern United States ===
The term originated in late 19th-century legislation and constitutional amendments passed by a number of [[Southern U.S.]] states, which created new requirements for [[literacy test]]s, payment of [[Poll tax (United States)|poll taxes]] and residency and property restrictions to register to vote. States in some cases exempted those whose ancestors (e.g., [[grandfathers]]) had the right to vote before the [[American Civil War]] or as of a particular date from such requirements. The intent and effect of such rules was to prevent former [[African-American]] [[Slavery in the United States|slaves]] and their descendants from voting but without denying poor and illiterate whites the right to vote.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/10/21/239081586/the-racial-history-of-the-grandfather-clause |title=The Racial History Of The 'Grandfather Clause' |date=22 October 2013 |publisher=NPR |work=Code Switch |first=Alan |last=Greenblatt |access-date=8 June 2020}}</ref> 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 constitution (United States)|state constitutions]] and [[Jim Crow laws]] passed between 1890 and 1908 by white-dominated [[State legislature (United States)|state legislatures]] including [[Alabama]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[Louisiana]], [[North Carolina]], [[Oklahoma]], and [[Virginia]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Two Reconstructions: The Struggle for Black Enfranchisement |last=Valelly |first=Richard M. |year=2004 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=0-226-84528-1 |pages=141 }}</ref> They restricted [[Voter registration in the United States|voter registration]], effectively preventing African Americans from voting.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1B1-365960.html |title=Grandfather clause |publisher=Concise Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=September 6, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090112110404/http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1B1-365960.html |archive-date=January 12, 2009 |url-status = live}}</ref> Racial restrictions on voting in place before 1870 were invalidated by the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifteenth Amendment]].

After [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]] took control of state legislatures again, especially after the [[Compromise of 1877]], they began to work to restrict the ability of black people to vote. [[Paramilitary]] groups such as the [[White League]], [[Red Shirts (Southern United States)|Red Shirts]], and rifle clubs had intimidated black people or barred them from the polls in numerous elections before what they called the [[Redemption (United States history)|Redemption]] (restoration of [[white supremacy]]). Nonetheless, a coalition of [[Populist Party (United States)|Populists]] and [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]] in [[Electoral fusion|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 [[Poll tax (United States)|poll taxes]] and residency and [[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 [[U.S. Supreme Court]] found such provisions unconstitutional in ''[[Guinn v. United States]]'' (1915), states were forced to stop using the grandfather clauses to provide exemption to literacy tests. Without the grandfather clauses, tens of thousands of poor Southern whites were [[Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era|disenfranchised]] in the early 20th century. As decades passed, Southern states tended to expand the franchise for poor whites, but most black people could not vote until after passage of the 1965 [[Voting Rights Act]].<ref>{{cite book |first= Glenn |last= Feldman |title= The Disfranchisement Myth: Poor Whites and Suffrage Restriction in Alabama |location= Auburn |publisher= University of Georgia Press |year= 2004 |page= 136 |isbn= 0-8203-2615-1}}</ref> 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 [[Voting Rights Act]] had provisions to protect voter registration and access to elections, with federal enforcement and supervision where necessary. In 1966, the Supreme Court ruled in ''[[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 [[Henry II of England|Henry II]]'s principle, preserved in many of his judgments, "Let it be as it was on the day of [[Henry I of England|my grandfather]]'s death", a principle by which he repudiated all the royal grants that had been made in the previous 19 years under [[Stephen of Blois|King Stephen]].<ref>{{cite book |first= Wilfred Lewis |last= Warren |title= Henry II |publisher= Univ of Calif Press |year=1973 |page= 219}}</ref>

==Modern examples==
{{Main|List of grandfather clauses}}

==See also==
* [[Generally recognized as safe]]
* [[Generally recognized as safe and effective]]
* [[Grace period]]
* [[Nonconforming use]]
* [[Sunset provision]]
* ''[[Williams v. Mississippi]]''

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last=Riser |first=R. Volney |title=Disfranchisement, the U.S. Constitution, and the Federal Courts: Alabama's 1901 Constitutional Convention Debates the Grandfather Clause |journal=American Journal of Legal History |year=2006 |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=237–279 |doi= 10.2307/25434804|jstor=25434804 }}
* [https://archive.org/details/fromjim_kla_2004_00_2378/page/70 Grandfather Clause in ''From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality'']

{{Voting rights in the United States}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grandfather Clause}}
[[Category:History of voting rights in the United States]]
[[Category:Legal terminology]]
[[Category:Law of the United States]]
[[Category:Politics of the Southern United States]]