Ex Post Facto

Sometime around 1961 while in the 8th Grade at West Rocks Junior High School, Mrs. Cole taught her last class of Civics. I was in her last class. We learned quite a bit about what it meant to be a United States Citizen. I learned a few latin terms, including Ex Post Facto. She taught that it meant no one could go back and make a previous act criminal, then charge that person with a crime.

Recently, the US House of Representatives have once again engaged in this type of retribution. This time with contracts.

In the United States, the federal government is prohibited from passing ex post facto laws by Article I, section 9 of the U.S. Constitution.

Just as with the Kelo decision to take people's property, certain people have continued to chip apart this law that was wrestled from the King of England back during the American Revolution.

In the 1994 opinion United States v. Carlton, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that retroactive tax laws did not violate the constitutional prohibition on ex post facto legislation, provided their retroactive application was "supported by a legitimate legislative purpose furthered by rational means

What else is in store for US, God only knows.