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Simple English definitions for legal terms

doctrine of the last preceding antecedent

Read a random definition: Bureau of Indian Affairs

A quick definition of doctrine of the last preceding antecedent:

The doctrine of the last preceding antecedent, also known as the rule of the last antecedent, is a legal principle that helps interpret ambiguous phrases in contracts or laws. It states that when a phrase has multiple antecedents (the word or phrase that a pronoun refers to), the pronoun should be interpreted to refer to the last antecedent mentioned. This means that the meaning of the phrase is limited to the last thing mentioned before the pronoun, and not any other antecedents that came before it.

A more thorough explanation:

The doctrine of the last preceding antecedent, also known as the rule of the last antecedent, is a principle of interpretation used in legal and grammatical contexts. It states that a qualifying phrase or clause applies only to the noun or phrase immediately preceding it.

"The teacher gave pencils to the students who passed the test."

In this sentence, the qualifying phrase "who passed the test" applies only to "students," not to "pencils" or "teacher." Therefore, only the students who passed the test received pencils from the teacher.

Another example:

"I gave cookies to my friends who came to the party."

Here, the qualifying phrase "who came to the party" applies only to "friends," not to "cookies" or "I." Therefore, only the friends who came to the party received cookies from the speaker.

These examples illustrate how the doctrine of the last preceding antecedent helps to clarify the intended meaning of a sentence by limiting the scope of a qualifying phrase or clause.

doctrine of the last antecedent | doctrine of unconstitutional conditions

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JumpySubsequentDolphin
21:34
LMAOOOO
JumpySubsequentDolphin
21:35
no he’s literally like 8 and he fully just put his head on my bicep and slept
JumpySubsequentDolphin
21:35
he has since moved
22:12
@SplitterusClitterus: me yesterday
gulc baby pls text me back... i miss you ...... :(
22:23
i just went into a discord vc and yelled "YALL I JUST GOT INTO J.M. SCHOOL OF LAW"
22:24
people were getting excited :sob:
22:25
then someone was like "what does jm stand for" and i was like .. well
AHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH
@JumpySubsequentDolphin: wait this is so cute, also where r u going
JOE MBIDEN
JumpySubsequentDolphin
22:39
@splitty Oregon!
oh yay for what thats so random
JumpySubsequentDolphin
22:45
haha my brother and sister in law live there
so cutie oregon is beatiful
soyalmondoatmilk
8:38
good morning! hoping waves will come our wave today
8:42
GW wave today?
8:57
There’s someone I found on here with the username threeoutchange and if my understanding is correct that’s a reference to the debut album by a pretty cool 90s-00s Japanese band called Supercar. I geeked a little
8:57
It could just be a baseball reference I don’t get though lol
Dkk
9:00
@renard99: also, the same band that does a song in the anime Eureka 7 which I watched when I was like idk, 12
9:00
Yeah! They are pretty good. Three Out Change is an awesome J-rock record
Dkk
9:01
I will probably not listen to them more but fun fact. Really random to start the day. An omen that the waves will be very random today.
Dkk
9:03
Fuck, reading the wikipedia now. Literal last song they did before they broke up was Storywriter. Wow.
9:05
That one is a masterpiece
9:05
My favorite song by them is Recreation
glovediedthisishismom
9:05
snowing
Dkk
9:07
@renard99: man, hard to find.
Dkk
9:07
@glovediedthisishismom: Congrats on the snow.
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