Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / October 2003

I apologize for any confusion. There are two relative pronouns in the
sentence, "that" and "which".

Yes, in this case, there is a slight possibility for error in
deciding which the referent is, but given the structure and semantics
of the relative clause (RC), it cannot be other than the entire noun
phrase (NP) "a law tailored to her case", or, much more simply,
"law".

The structure of the NP + RC is restrictive. If it referred to "her
case", it would be awkward. Instead of "her", "the" (or "one" or "a")
would be preferred if not absolutely required. In that event, though,
the final RC, "which he promptly did", would have to be placed at the
front of the sentence:

  "Gov. Jeb Bush promptly issued a stay after
  the Florida Legislature passed a law tailored
  to another case that authorized the governor
  to issue a one-time stay in similar circumstances."

--- but in this case, "tailored to" would have to be replaced by
"patterned after" --- or else removed from the sentence. Another way
to have the RC refer to "her case" would be to use a non-restrictive
structure (commas before and after the RC) and the pronoun "which".
Ideally, though, the sentence would have to be rewritten because it
would be too complex and awkward.

Cases do not authorize anything; they set precedents. Laws, however,
do authorize things, so the possibility of misunderstanding is not a
matter of grammar but of understanding the difference between "case"
and "law". And, of course, there is such a thing as "case law" in
American jurisprudence (British, too, I think, where it's called
"common law"), but that means law decided on the basis of precedent
cases.