You're correct that it doesn't have some wildly divergent meaning from plain English, but it is in fact a legal phrase that has a lot of history and specific me

You're correct that it doesn't have some wildly divergent meaning from plain English, but it is in fact a legal phrase that has a lot of history and specific meaning behind it: http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/but-for_test http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/but-for_test http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=113 http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=113 http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/%22But+for%22+Rule http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/%22But+for%22+...