"grandfather clause" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "From late 19th-century legislation and constitutional amendments passed by a number of U.S. Southern states, which created new literacy and property restrictions on voting, but exempted those whose grandfathers had the right to vote before the American Civil War. The intent and effect of such rules was to prevent poor and illiterate African American former slaves and their descendants from voting, but without denying poor and illiterate whites the right to vote.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "grandfather clauses",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "grandfather clause (plural grandfather clauses)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Esperanto translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with German translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Hungarian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Swedish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Law",
          "orig": "en:Law",
          "parents": [
            "Justice",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "verb"
          ],
          "word": "grandfather"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "verb"
          ],
          "word": "grandfather in"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Many building codes include a grandfather clause exempting older buildings until some amount of remodeling occurs.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1910 October 27, “Grandfather's Clause”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "The “grandfather clause” provides that no man whose grandfather could not vote, can exercise the right of franchise. It will thus disenfranchise many negroes, whose grandfathers were slaves.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1911, Frederic Jesup Stimson, chapter XVI, in Popular Law-making:",
          "text": "Under the Fifteenth Amendment there is little political legislation, except the effort in Southern States by educational or property qualifications, and most questionably by the so-called \"grandfather clause,\" to exclude most negroes from the right of suffrage.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1981 December 17, “Santa Claus? No, Grandfather Clause”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "The compromise that was finally struck will eliminate the minimum benefit for future retirees. But a “grandfather” clause allows the three million pensioners already receiving it to keep on getting it.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1992 January 18, “Undeserving 'Grandfathers'”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "A grandfather clause will allow senior members retiring this year to transfer these funds to their personal bank accounts.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 October 22, Alan Greenblatt, “The Racial History Of The 'Grandfather Clause'”, in NPR.org:",
          "text": "In 1915, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Guinn v. United States that grandfather clauses were unconstitutional. The court in those days upheld any number of segregationist laws — and even in Guinn specified that literacy tests untethered from grandfather clauses were OK.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A clause or section, especially in a law, granting exceptions for people or organisations who were affected by previous conditions."
      ],
      "id": "en-grandfather_clause-en-noun-1Y~O4QBf",
      "links": [
        [
          "clause",
          "clause"
        ],
        [
          "section",
          "section"
        ],
        [
          "law",
          "law"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
          "sense": "exeption for those joined under the previous law",
          "word": "ava klaŭzo"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "exeption for those joined under the previous law",
          "word": "siirtymälauseke"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "exeption for those joined under the previous law",
          "word": "saavutettujen etuuksien säilyttämislauseke"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "exeption for those joined under the previous law",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Bestandsschutz"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "exeption for those joined under the previous law",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Bestandsschutzregelung"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "exeption for those joined under the previous law",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Besitzstandsregelung"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "exeption for those joined under the previous law",
          "word": "szerzett jog miatti felmentési záradék"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "exeption for those joined under the previous law",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "övergångsbestämmelse"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "grandfather clause"
}

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "verb"
      ],
      "word": "grandfather"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "verb"
      ],
      "word": "grandfather in"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From late 19th-century legislation and constitutional amendments passed by a number of U.S. Southern states, which created new literacy and property restrictions on voting, but exempted those whose grandfathers had the right to vote before the American Civil War. The intent and effect of such rules was to prevent poor and illiterate African American former slaves and their descendants from voting, but without denying poor and illiterate whites the right to vote.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "grandfather clauses",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "grandfather clause (plural grandfather clauses)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Esperanto translations",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with German translations",
        "Terms with Hungarian translations",
        "Terms with Swedish translations",
        "en:Law"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Many building codes include a grandfather clause exempting older buildings until some amount of remodeling occurs.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1910 October 27, “Grandfather's Clause”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "The “grandfather clause” provides that no man whose grandfather could not vote, can exercise the right of franchise. It will thus disenfranchise many negroes, whose grandfathers were slaves.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1911, Frederic Jesup Stimson, chapter XVI, in Popular Law-making:",
          "text": "Under the Fifteenth Amendment there is little political legislation, except the effort in Southern States by educational or property qualifications, and most questionably by the so-called \"grandfather clause,\" to exclude most negroes from the right of suffrage.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1981 December 17, “Santa Claus? No, Grandfather Clause”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "The compromise that was finally struck will eliminate the minimum benefit for future retirees. But a “grandfather” clause allows the three million pensioners already receiving it to keep on getting it.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1992 January 18, “Undeserving 'Grandfathers'”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "A grandfather clause will allow senior members retiring this year to transfer these funds to their personal bank accounts.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 October 22, Alan Greenblatt, “The Racial History Of The 'Grandfather Clause'”, in NPR.org:",
          "text": "In 1915, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Guinn v. United States that grandfather clauses were unconstitutional. The court in those days upheld any number of segregationist laws — and even in Guinn specified that literacy tests untethered from grandfather clauses were OK.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A clause or section, especially in a law, granting exceptions for people or organisations who were affected by previous conditions."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "clause",
          "clause"
        ],
        [
          "section",
          "section"
        ],
        [
          "law",
          "law"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "sense": "exeption for those joined under the previous law",
      "word": "ava klaŭzo"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "exeption for those joined under the previous law",
      "word": "siirtymälauseke"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "exeption for those joined under the previous law",
      "word": "saavutettujen etuuksien säilyttämislauseke"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "exeption for those joined under the previous law",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Bestandsschutz"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "exeption for those joined under the previous law",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Bestandsschutzregelung"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "exeption for those joined under the previous law",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Besitzstandsregelung"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "exeption for those joined under the previous law",
      "word": "szerzett jog miatti felmentési záradék"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "exeption for those joined under the previous law",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "övergångsbestämmelse"
    }
  ],
  "word": "grandfather clause"
}