Under the Color of the Law

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Slava
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Under the Color of the Law

Postby Slava » Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:48 am

Any lawyers out there who can explain this in plain English? What does color have to do with law? I've read a couple of definitions, but am still quite hazy on this.
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brogine
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Re: Under the Color of the Law

Postby brogine » Sun Sep 12, 2021 2:52 pm

From the following, ‘appearance, semblance’. Also, remember ‘colors’ can signify authority, as with a flag.

From the OED on ‘colour|color’:

(in law) appearance, semblance (a1292 or earlier), (in law) justification, plausibility (a1292 or earlier)

II. Figurative senses.
* Senses relating to outward appearance.
7. Law.
a. Apparent or de facto legal authority or status, esp. as opposed to that actually granted or established. Frequently with negative connotations, suggesting that the authority is used as a pretext for illegal or corrupt behaviour . Chiefly in colour of authority, colour of law, colour of office. Now chiefly U.S.
In negative use frequently overlapping with Phrases 2c, Phrases 2b.
a1325 Statutes of Realm (2011) v. 14 Ant alse hit is..ipurueid þat non escheitur, ne non oþer [kinges] baillif, þoru colur of his offiz, biþoute special warant, oþer commaundement, oþer certein auctorite þat appendez to his offiz, ne deseise no man of his fre tenement, ne of þing þat appendez to his fre tenement.
1579 Rastell's Expos. Termes Lawes (new ed.) f. 43/1 Colour of office, is alwaies taken in ye worst part, & signifieth an act euel done, by the countenance of an office, and it beareth a dissemblinge face of the right office.

Before 1325!
Last edited by brogine on Sun Feb 18, 2024 1:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Slava
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Re: Under the Color of the Law

Postby Slava » Sun Sep 12, 2021 7:17 pm

Thank you for this. It sounds like 'color of the law' means something along the lines of saying you can do it because you say your position makes it okay. Hiding behind the law, while going beyond it.

Or do I misconstrue?
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

brogine
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Re: Under the Color of the Law

Postby brogine » Sun Sep 12, 2021 7:30 pm

I myself don’t see any negative connotation, but wiser heads might agree with you. Good talking to you.

bbeeton
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Re: Under the Color of the Law

Postby bbeeton » Mon Mar 13, 2023 3:11 pm

I've always heard this as "under the cover of the law", but nobody has mentioned that. Maybe I'm just being pedantic; I seem to be getting accused of that a lot recently.

brogine
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Re: Under the Color of the Law

Postby brogine » Mon Mar 13, 2023 10:41 pm

Didn’t think of this before, but I think it’s ‘under cover of law’.

Later that day . . . it occurs to me that the omission of
the determiners makes this more a poetic figure of speech
than a straightforward legal phrase like, say, ‘under the
protection of this writ.’
I still marvel at ‘all of a sudden’, a bit of lyricism
right around us . . .

‘ . . . born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.’

bnjtokyo
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Re: Under the Color of the Law

Postby bnjtokyo » Tue Mar 14, 2023 7:45 pm

"Under the color of law" has been around for quite awhile. The NGRAM Viewer turned up this from 1828.
"We ask no more for the churches than what most obviously belongs to them, their right of self-preservation, self-organization, of controlling their own property, and managing, generally, their own appropriate concerns; and when this is refused them, whether under the color of law, or in face of law, (though we can [italic] keep the peace [end italic],) we cannot, without, treachery to Him whose are all the churches, we cannot cordially, [italic] acquiesce [end italic]"

From "The Spirit of the Pilgrims for the Year 1928" published by Peirce (sic) and Williams in Boston
https://www.google.co.jp/books/edition/ ... frontcover

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Re: Under the Color of the Law

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sat Jun 03, 2023 7:15 am

I can see a difference between "under the cover of the law" and "under the color of the law". The former means "under the protection of the law"; the latter, "under the seeming protection of the law". "Color" in this sense is used metaphorically in the sense of "superficiality" since color is the outermost part of things, sometimes hiding that which lurks beneath.
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