by virtue of

It was Wayne — America’s biggest movie star, the self-reliant enforcer, the loping lawman who set the world to rights by virtue of his unbending fortitude.

It added: "However, under the code and by virtue of Cas precedent, an athlete bears responsibility for the entourage's negligence. Based on the unique set of facts of this case, a three-month suspension is deemed to be an appropriate outcome."

To state the obvious, the court would have created a daunting task for itself if it had ruled for the unions, inasmuch as so many horses—approximately 75,000 of them, at last and possibly final count—are already halfway out of the barn, merely by virtue of having clicked Resign in response to Musk’s “Fork in the Road” email.

"Which means that just by virtue of having received this very happy news from me that he has been awarded payments, Andy now faces prospects of losing the social housing that he waited a very long time to be given."

Even in these final moments of his presidency, when he was arguably free to do whatever he wanted, including closing the prison, he chose instead, by virtue of his administration putting the deal on hold, to halt forward progress, leaving us to wonder why.