ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Grandfather clause

Have you ever played a game with your friends and then changed some of the rules in the middle of the game? It can feel really unfair, right? Well, imagine if that happened with real-life rules!

Sometimes, laws and rules change. For example, a new law might say that everyone has to wear a seatbelt in the car. But what happens to the people who were driving before the law was passed and didn't wear seatbelts? Should they get in trouble for something that wasn't a law when they were driving?

That's where the grandfather clause comes in. It's like a special rule that says if you were doing something before a new law was passed, you can keep doing it even if it's no longer allowed.

Here's an example: let's say a new law is passed that says you have to be 18 years old to buy cigarettes. But there are some people who are already 16 or 17 and have been buying cigarettes legally. They wouldn't be able to buy cigarettes anymore under the new law. But with the grandfather clause, those people would still be allowed to buy cigarettes until they turn 18.

So, in summary, the grandfather clause is a rule that allows people to keep doing something that is now illegal because they were doing it before the law changed. It's like an exception to the new rule.