What does “gutted” mean when talking about a law or bill?

To “gut” a law means to cut out its core parts. The word comes from cleaning a fish — what’s left looks whole on the outside but is empty inside. In news and politics, a bill is “gutted” when politicians strip out the parts that made it work. The law still exists on paper, but it has lost most of its power. You’ll see this word a lot in political headlines.

In the clip, Marianne Williamson says “we have an administration that has gutted the Clean Water Act.” She does not mean the law was deleted. She means the key protections were taken away, leaving a much weaker version behind. You’ll see this verb across political news: “the amendment gutted the bill,” “regulators gutted the emissions rules,” “the ruling gutted the voting rights protections.” Any time a law is made nearly useless by removing its heart, writers reach for “gutted.” One watch-out: in informal British English, “gutted” means deeply disappointed. (“I was gutted when they cancelled the show.”) Both uses share the same idea — something has lost what made it valuable — but context makes it easy to tell which meaning is meant.