title: How do I write a before-or-equal-date validation that compares to the current date?
body: <p>I am new to Laravel and am using Laravel 6.x. I need to write a validation that looks at a date supplied by a user on a form (via a JQuery datepicker) to make sure the user chose a date that is on or before the current date. I can't figure out how to express the current date without using apostrophes in my expression somewhere and THAT is going to mess with Laravel understanding the validation properly. </p>
  
  <p>For example, if I write:</p>
  
  <pre><code>'sleep_date' =&gt; ['required', 'before-or-equal-date: Date(Y-m-d)']
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>that's not going to work because there are no apostrophes around the argument of the Date function. But if I add apostrophes as in this example, Laravel says there is a syntax error: </p>
  
  <pre><code>'sleep_date' =&gt; ['required', 'before-or-equal-date: Date('Y-m-d')']
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How do I code this so that it works as intended?</p>