Also known as: ordonnances · ordinance · decree · executive order
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The French term for a law, decree, or ordinance.
City officials enact an ordonnance banning a specific method of animal slaughter used by a religious group. Members of the group, including plaintiff Ernesto Pichardo, challenge the law in federal court. The court applies strict scrutiny after finding the ordonnance targets religious conduct and is not neutral.
Spouses Oscar Ortiz and Odilia Okamura execute a marital property agreement reclassifying inherited land as individual property. The agreement is confirmed by court ordonnance under the uniform act. Upon later dissolution, the court treats the land as Oscar's separate asset.
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Odin Obeng and his spouse submit a separation agreement that directs the court not to incorporate its terms into the final ordonnance. The court issues a dissolution ordonnance identifying the agreement and stating its terms are not unconscionable. The agreement remains enforceable as a contract.
After a final divorce ordonnance, former spouse Olga O'Neill seeks a share of the decedent's estate. The probate court determines she is not a surviving spouse because the marriage ended by divorce and no subsequent marriage occurred. A mere separation ordonnance would not have produced the same result.
Birth mother Oakley Osei signs a written, notarized consent to adoption of her child after the statutory waiting period. The court enters the adoption ordonnance. Oakley later attempts to withdraw consent but is barred because the ordonnance has been entered.
Outback Mining operates a quarry that became nonconforming after a new zoning ordonnance. The ordonnance grants a five-year amortization period based on the owner's investment and the use's character. After the period expires, the company must cease operations or face enforcement.
An ordonnance is the French term for a law, decree, or ordinance and may refer to a systematic compilation of rules on a subject such as prizes at sea. In U.S. practice the term appears in uniform acts and case law when a court decree or local ordinance carries binding effect.
Under the Uniform Marital Property Act a decree can designate property as individual when it confirms a marital property agreement or reclassification. The decree supplies the formal mechanism that changes the property's character for dissolution purposes.
Once the adoption decree is entered, consent is irrevocable under typical state statutes. Withdrawal is possible only before the decree and only if the court finds it serves the child's best interest after notice and hearing.
…opinion in full. I write separately to call attention to this Court’s threat to American democracy. The substance of today’s decree is not of immense personal importance to me. The law can recognize as marriage whatever sexual attachments and living arrangements it wishes, and can accord them favorable civil…