ex post facto


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Related to ex post facto: Ex post facto law

ex post facto

adj. Latin for "after the fact," which refers to laws adopted after an act is committed making it illegal although it was legal when done, or increases the penalty for a crime after it is committed. Such laws are specifically prohibited by the U. S. Constitution, Article I, Section 9. Therefore, if a state legislature or Congress enact new rules of proof or longer sentences, those new rules or sentences do not apply to crimes committed before the new law was adopted.

ex post facto

adjective affecting a previous act, after, after the act is committed, after the fact, afterward, at a later period, at a later time, at a subsequent period, at a succeeding time, directly after, following in time, later, later in time, retroactive, thereafter
Associated concepts: ex post facto law

EX POST FACTO, contracts, crim. law. This is a technical expression, which signifies, that something has been done after another thing, in relation to the latter.
     2. An estate granted, may be made good or avoided by matter ex post facto, when an election is given to the party to accept or not to accept. 1 Co. 146.
     3. The Constitution of the United States, art. 1, sec. 10, forbids the states to pass any ex post facto law; which has been defined to be one which renders the act punishable in a manner in which it was not punishable when it was committed. 6 Cranch, 138. This definition extends to laws passed after the act, and affecting a person by way of punishment of that act, either in his person or estate. 3 Dall. 386; 1 Blackf. Ind. R. 193 2 Pet. U. S. Rep. 413 1 Kent, Com. 408; Dane's Ab. Index, h.t.
     4. This prohibition in the constitution against passing ex post facto law's, applies exclusively to criminal or penal cases, and not to civil cases. Serg. Const. Law, 356. Vide 2 Pick. R. 172; 11 Pick. R. 28; 2 Root, R. 350; 5 Monr. 133; 9 Mass. R. 363; 3 N. H. Rep. 475; 7 John. R. 488; 6 Binn. R. 271; 1 J. J. Marsh, 563; 2 Pet. R. 681; and the article Retrospective.

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References in periodicals archive ?
The Supreme Court has held that only those defendants who are sentenced in a mandatory system are entitled to the right to a jury to determine sentencing facts, the right to have sentencing facts proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the right to notice of which facts and other considerations will inform the judges' sentencing decisions, and the right not to be sentenced under ex post facto laws.
Procedural rights at sentencing
Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
The objects of the Constitution
This Note argues that the Supreme Court's decision was incorrect and that section 803(g) does not violate the Ex Post Facto Clause.
Stogner v. California: a collision between the ex post facto clause and California's interest in protecting child sex abuse victims
Supreme Court held that the state's extension of the statute of limitations was an ex post facto law prohibited by Article I, [subsection] 9 and 10, of the Constitution.
Constitution bars prosecution of long-ago child abusers
He claimed that he had committed no violation because the lead-based paint had been applied before it became unlawful, and he was protected by the ex post facto clauses.
Language and the law. (Legal Briefs)
Despite the concerns of dissenting justices about all three questions, Justice Thomas ruled in Hendricks that neither double jeopardy nor ex post facto concerns were implicated in the Kansas act.
Irresistible impulses. (Guest Editorial)
A quasi-experimental, ex post facto design was used.
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Ex post facto legislation significantly altering the tax treatment of completed transactions will only spawn public cynicism about the Canadian tax system.
Retroactive legislation - Press Release 99-067 announcing clarifying amendments regarding the tax treatment of resource expenditures
On appeal, Eichmann raised chiefly jurisdictional arguments, claiming that he was a foreign national when he committed his crimes, and that the law vesting jurisdiction in Israeli courts to try Nazis and collaborators was ex post facto.
Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat
Since its origin in 1787, the Ex Post Facto Clause, prominently set forth in Article I of the United States Constitution, has unequivocally, prohibited state and federal governments from enacting "ex post facto laws"--penal laws that are retroactive in their effect.
The ex post facto clause and the jurisprudence of punishment
in the resolution of a conflict) from those in which it was merely imposed ex post facto by believers as an explanation for fortuitous deliverance.
Violence and Miracle in the Fourteenth Century: Private Grief and Public Salvation
The Court concluded that the Kansas act did not violate the double jeopardy, ex post facto, or the due process clauses of the Constitution.
Supreme Court cases: 1996-1997 term

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