prefatory

As Chin writes in a prefatory author’s note, her family’s history traveled down to her primarily via oral history.

I dropped the prefatory clause, since everyone ignores anyway.

The prefatory clause has been dismissed as but one application of the operative clause, which establishes an individual right of gun ownership for purposes of self-defense.

Heller, the majority concluded that despite the prefatory language relating to a militia, the amendment created an individual right to keep and bear arms.

The compass allows you to navigate out of sight of land and, naturally, Edward Wright’s prefatory letter to On the Magnet mentions the circumnavigations of the Earth by English sailors.