Grandfather clause
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In American English, a Grandfather clause is an exception that allows an old rule to continue to apply to some existing situations, when a new rule will apply to all future situations. It is often used as a verb: to "grandfather" means to grant such an exemption. For example, a "grandfathered power plant" may be exempt from tougher pollution laws.
Often, such a provision is used as a compromise, to effect new rules without upsetting a well-established logistical or political situation. As well as being "grandfathered in" to avoid suffering new penalties, people may be "grandfathered" to receive new benefits they are not otherwise entitled to. For example, if a company has a pension plan that after a certain date improves to include additional or superior benefits, those who have already retired may be "grandfathered in"; they may be granted the same improvements to their existing pension plan, so that they are not, in effect, penalized for having retired prior to the rule change. This amounts to the same as the new rules being "not retroactively applied".
[edit] Origin
The original grandfather clauses were contained in the Jim Crow laws used from 1890 to 1910 in much of the Southern United States to prevent blacks, Native Americans and certain whites from voting. Earlier prohibitions on voting in place prior to 1870 were nullified by the Fifteenth Amendment. In response, some states passed laws requiring poll taxes and/or supposed literacy tests from would-be voters. An exemption to these requirements was made for all persons allowed to vote before the American Civil War, and any of their descendants. The term was born from the fact that the law tied the then-current generation's voting rights to those of their grandfathers.
After the U.S. Supreme Court found Jim Crow laws with such exemptions unconstitutional in Guinn v. United States, a strict application of poll taxes and/or literacy tests would have disenfrachised some whites, and sometimes did so in early years. However, as time passed, states with Jim Crow laws chose not to enforce them against any whites.
These laws had the effect of disenfranchising blacks, but not whites, until the ratification of the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and a 1966 Supreme Court ruling that eliminated most legal barriers to black voting.
In spite of its origins, today the term "grandfather clause" does not retain any pejorative sense.
[edit] Modern examples
- In 1952, the United States ratified the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, preventing Presidents from running for a third term (or a second term, if they had served more than two years of another's term). The text of the amendment specifically excluded the sitting president, Harry Truman from its provisions.
- In aviation, grandfather rights refers to the control airlines exert over "slots" (that is, times allotted for access to runways). While the drift of airport management has been to reassert control over these slots, many airlines are able to retain their traditional rights based on current licenses.
- Many sections of highways or even surface streets were grandfathered into the Interstate Highway System. I-78 runs off of the New Jersey Turnpike Newark Bay Extension onto surface streets before entering the Holland Tunnel and ending in Manhattan
- In 1997, to honor Jackie Robinson, Major League Baseball prohibited all teams from issuing #42 in the future, but current players wearing #42 were grandfathered. New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera is the only player still wearing #42.
- In 1920, when Major League Baseball introduced the prohibition of the spitball, it was recognized that there were some professional pitchers who had built their careers in large part on the spitball. A special exception was made for these 17 named players, and they were permitted to throw spitballs for the rest of their careers. Burleigh Grimes lasted the longest of the seventeen, retiring in 1934.
- In NASCAR, grandfather clause protection refers to Alltel, Cingular, and Samsung and RadioShack (for a race at Texas Motor Speedway) (all three parties had been regular sponsors in NASCAR's then-Winston Cup Series since 2002), in reference to a prohibition on NASCAR sponsorships in the Nextel Cup Series established on June 19, 2003. No telecommunications company advertising is permitted at NASCAR Nextel Cup Series events under the exclusivity agreement between NASCAR and Nextel. (Samsung was prohibited because they were a technical competitor to Nextel, which uses exclusively Motorola products.) They may continue with their present sponsorships, but if they change, they will become prohibited. After the 2005 merger of Sprint and Nextel, the prohibition on Samsung and RadioShack was removed, because Sprint carries Samsung products, and Sprint is sold at RadioShack. Samsung dropped sponsorship at Texas Motor Speedway after the 2006 race, but a ban on Samsung sponsorship does not exist presently. RadioShack will keep sponsorship at Texas.
- The NFL outlawed single barred helmets for the 2004 season but allowed Cardinals punter Scott Player to continue wearing his single barred helmet.
- The WWE has banned use of the piledriver but still allows The Undertaker, Mr. Kennedy, and Kane to use the move.
