severability
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 390 U.S. 570 - United States v. Jackson · 1968Most cited · 2,644 citing opinions
unconstitutional statutory provision
The unconstitutionality of a part of an Act does not necessarily defeat * * * the validity of its remaining provisions. Unless it is evident that the legislature would not have enacted those provisions which are within its power, independently of that which is not, the invalid part may be dropped if what is left is fully operative as a law.
How the Supreme Court has restated “severability”
Each Supreme Court definition of “severability,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “severability”
Court decisions citing the 4 opinions that defined “severability” — 4,144 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 4 definitions, chronological · 1914–1968
- ORIGINAL
In that case the valid and invalid provisions formed an inseparable part of a single act which was void as a whole, whether treated as having been adopted by the legislature or the people. On the other hand, in the case at bar the original local option law of 1889 had been held to be constitutional as a whole, and its validity could not be impaired by the subsequent adoption of what were in form amendments, but, in legal effect, were mere nullities. ... these void amendments were not a part of the law, but extraneous inducements which may or may not have determined the result.
void amendments
The unconstitutionality of a part of an act does not necessarily defeat or affect the validity of its remaining provisions. Unless it is evident that the Legislature would not have enacted those provisions which are within its power, independently of that which is not, the invalid part may be dropped if what is left is fully operative as a law.
Whether the provisions of a contract are nonseverable, so that if one be held invalid the others must fall with it, is clearly a question of general and not of federal law.
contract provisions