Definition
Means of support refers to the resources from which a person derives, or is capable of deriving, the necessaries and comforts of life. The term functions as a legal standard of sufficiency rather than a narrow accounting category — it encompasses not only actual income but any resource that could reasonably supply what a person requires for subsistence and comfort.
The term appears across several distinct legal contexts:
1. Family law and domestic relations. Means of support describes the financial capacity of a spouse, parent, or other obligated party to provide for dependents. Whether a person possesses adequate means of support is a central inquiry in alimony, spousal support, and child support proceedings.
2. Immigration law (historical and modern). Proof of means of support has long been a condition of lawful entry and residency. Historically, inability to demonstrate self-sufficiency was grounds for exclusion or deportation; modern public charge doctrine carries this inquiry forward.
3. Vagrancy and public welfare law (largely historical). Statutes once required individuals to demonstrate means of support as a condition of lawful presence in a jurisdiction; the absence of such means could constitute an element of the offense of vagrancy. Most such statutes have been struck down or repealed.
4. Means-tested benefits. In public benefits law, means of support is the baseline concept underlying eligibility determinations: an applicant's existing resources are assessed to determine whether they fall below the threshold that triggers program eligibility.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Means of support" in ordinary English refers broadly to how a person earns a living or sustains themselves financially — typically employment or income.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's does not treat "means of support" as a discrete entry, but "means" in the sense of resources or instrumentality was well established, and "support" carried the sense of maintenance and sustenance.
The legal term is broader than the ordinary usage in one important respect: it includes not merely current income but all resources from which necessaries and comforts are or may be supplied. Potential as well as actual resources count. A person with substantial property but no employment income may still be found to possess adequate means of support for legal purposes.
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Why It Matters in Research
The term is a moving target across time and doctrinal area. Researchers should track at least three shifts:
First, the definition is asset-inclusive, not income-exclusive. Both historical dictionaries define the term to include lands and goods alongside wages and salaries. Courts in domestic relations and immigration matters have construed this broadly; researchers relying only on income-based sources may underestimate what a historical court would have found sufficient.
Second, the vagrancy law context is a trap for historical researchers. Nineteenth and early twentieth-century statutes frequently predicated criminal liability on absence of means of support. These statutes used the phrase as a term of art, and case law interpreting them does not translate cleanly into family law or immigration research. Cross-contamination of doctrine is a real risk when pulling period sources.
Third, the public benefits context has inverted the traditional inquiry. In vagrancy law and immigration exclusion, having means of support was required; in modern means-tested benefits law, lacking means of support is the gateway to eligibility. The same phrase thus carries opposite legal valences depending on the program and era. Research in the administrative law corpus requires careful attention to which side of that threshold is at issue.
Fourth, Black's entry includes a fragmentary reference to the Norman French term "mease" or "mese" (for a house) and cites Littleton immediately after the means of support definition. This appears to be a typographical artifact of early Black's editions — an adjacent entry bleeding into the means of support entry. Researchers using early editions of Black's should not read this as substantive authority connecting the two concepts.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Black's and Bouvier's are in close agreement, both drawing on the same Illinois authority (71 Ill. 241/242) and using nearly identical language: "all those resources from which the necessaries and comforts of life are or may be supplied, such as lands, goods, salaries, wages, or other sources of income." The convergence suggests this formulation had achieved something close to standard status by the late nineteenth century.
What both sources omit is significant for modern research. Neither addresses the public benefits inversion described above, nor the constitutional dimensions that emerged in the twentieth century — including equal protection challenges to vagrancy statutes that used means of support as a predicate for criminal liability, and due process constraints on public charge determinations in immigration proceedings. Researchers should not treat the historical dictionary definitions as sufficient for any post-New Deal inquiry.
The "necessaries and comforts" formulation in both dictionaries is itself a legal standard with its own history in domestic relations law. "Necessaries" carried a technical meaning in contract and family law — the doctrine of necessaries governed a spouse's authority to bind the other in contract for essential goods and services. Researchers should not assume that "necessaries" in this phrase is mere ordinary language.
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Jurisdictional Note
Domestic relations law governing the sufficiency of means of support is state law, and thresholds vary considerably across jurisdictions. Immigration public charge doctrine is federal and has shifted substantially through administrative rule-making; researchers must identify the governing rule for the specific time period at issue, as the definition of what resources count has changed more than once in recent decades.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Family Law Encyclopedia: "Child Support — Paternity as Prerequisite to Support"
The Law Mind Administrative Law & Government Encyclopedia: "Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Means-Tested Benefits"
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