Void in part, void in toto.

Explanation

(English-origin maxim.) Where a material part of an instrument or act is void, the entire instrument or act fails — the law will not sever and enforce only the valid portions when the void portion is essential to the whole.

Where this applies

• A statute grants police the power to search homes without a warrant for certain offenses, and the court strikes the entire statute because the unconstitutional search provision is essential to the law's operation.
• A contract contains an illegal non-compete clause so central to the deal that removing it would change the nature of the agreement entirely, and the court voids the whole contract rather than severing the clause.
• A deed conveys property with a racially restrictive covenant that is integral to the terms of the grant, and the court voids the entire conveyance because the void provision infects the whole.