What is "negative pregnant"

Negative \Neg"a*tive\ (n[e^]g"[.a]*t[i^]v), n. [Cf. F. n['e]gative.]

1. A proposition by which something is denied or forbidden; a conception or term formed by prefixing the negative particle to one which is positive; an opposite or contradictory term or conception.

   This is a known rule in divinity, that there is no command that runs in negatives but couches under it a positive duty.
   --South.

2. A word used in denial or refusal; as, not, no.

   Note: In Old England two or more negatives were often joined together for the sake of emphasis, whereas now such expressions are considered ungrammatical, being chiefly heard in iliterate speech. A double negative is now sometimes used as nearly or quite equivalent to an affirmative.

   No wine ne drank she, neither white nor red.
   --Chaucer.

   These eyes that never did nor never shall So much as frown on you.
   --Shak.

3. The refusal or withholding of assents; veto.

   If a kind without his kingdom be, in a civil sense, nothing, then . . . his negative is as good as nothing.
   --Milton.

4. That side of a question which denies or refuses, or which is taken by an opposing or denying party; the relation or position of denial or opposition; as, the question was decided in the negative.

5. (Photog.) A picture upon glass or other material, in which the light portions of the original are represented in some opaque material (usually reduced silver), and the dark portions by the uncovered and transparent or semitransparent ground of the picture.

   Note: A negative is chiefly used for producing photographs by means of passing light through it and acting upon sensitized paper, thus producing on the paper a positive picture.

6. (Elect.) The negative plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell.

   Negative pregnant (Law), a negation which implies an affirmation.

n. (context legal English) A denial which imply its affirmative opposite by seeming to deny only a qualification of the allegation and not the allegation itself. For example, "I have never consumed cocaine while on duty" might imply that the person making the statement had consumed cocaine on other occasions.

A negative pregnant (sometimes called a pregnant denial) refers to a denial which implies its affirmative opposite by seeming to deny only a qualification of the allegation and not the allegation itself. For example, "I deny that I owe the plaintiff five hundred dollars" might imply that the person making the statement owes some other sum of money, and was only denying that they owe that particular amount.

A negative pregnant which appears in pleadings will often elicit a request for further and better particulars, or an interrogatory. In order to avoid a negative pregnant in the above example, one might instead say, "I deny that I owe the plaintiff five hundred dollars, or any other sum of money."

The issue can also arise in the context of statutory interpretation. For instance, Justice Marshall argues in his dissent to EEOC v. Aramco that the presumption against extraterritoriality is rebutted by a negative inference from the alien-exemption provision of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which states that Title VII "shall not apply to an employer with respect to the employment of aliens outside any State." Marshall concludes that "Absent an intention that Title VII apply 'outside any State,' Congress would have had no reason to craft this extraterritorial exemption. And because only discrimination against aliens is exempted, employers remain accountable for discrimination against United States citizens abroad."