Also known as: gives way · gave way · giving way · give-way · yield
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A verb phrase requiring one legal interest or rule to defer to another of superior priority. The phrase identifies the outcome when two valid claims cannot coexist and the lesser must step aside.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Gwen Gallagher and her Amish community refuse to send children to high school after eighth grade. State officials enforce the compulsory attendance statute. The court holds that the statute must give way to the parents' free exercise rights and their established self-sufficient practices.
Galaxy Technologies challenges a state commission order banning promotional advertising by electric utilities. The commission defends the ban as energy conservation. The court requires the regulation to give way unless it directly advances a substantial state interest and is narrowly drawn.
Greta Goldstein operates a clinic subject to spousal-notification and waiting-period rules. State officials defend the provisions as protecting potential life. The court holds that the rules must give way when they impose an undue burden on a woman's right to choose.
Gulfstream Aviation owns land taken for a city street widening. The city offers only nominal compensation. The court rules that the city's eminent-domain power must give way to the constitutional requirement of just compensation.
Grove Manufacturing holds subsurface rights to mine coal. A state statute prohibits mining that causes surface subsidence. The court determines that the statute must give way when it destroys the economic value of the mineral estate without compensation.
Glenn Gross sues a rural cooperative in federal court on a state-law claim. The cooperative argues that state procedural rules control whether a jury decides a factual dispute. The court holds that the state rule must give way when it conflicts with federal policy favoring jury trials.
One rule gives way when a court determines that a higher-priority interest, such as a constitutional right, controls the outcome and displaces the lesser claim.
No. The phrase describes any situation in which one valid legal interest must defer to another of superior rank, including statutory and common-law conflicts.
The displaced rule is not enforced to the extent it conflicts with the superior interest, but it remains valid in other applications where no conflict exists.
…the inconvenience of private persons whose conduct may be involved, and occasional injury to the reputations of individuals must yield to the public welfare, although at times such injury may be great. The public benefit from publicity is so great, and the chance of injury to private character so small, that such…