Ex post facto law

The United States Constitution prohibits both the legislature and states from implementing ex post facto laws. The ex post facto clause, found in section 10 of Article I, provides that, “no State shall pass any ex post facto law” (Gaudet 2003, 646). A similar provision, in the ninth section of the same article, applies the same prohibition to congress. It is evident that ex post facto laws were largely condemned by the framers of our government and were intended to be unachievable under our system. Although the prohibition of ex post facto laws is demanded in the constitution, it is unclear as to what these laws refer to. An ex post facto law is one which is retroactive or changes the legal consequences of an action that occurred before the…

a stand, making a change, and helping the nation prosper. When just one person takes a stand for something they believe is not right, they give courage to other people to stand up as well. Susan B. Anthony was a strong leader that gave other women courage to take a stand for their rights. In her speech “ On Women 's Right to Vote” she states “Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election.”…

In an instance where an individual decides to take another’s life in order to preserve their own life might be under the assumption that their action is just based on necessity. However, the assumption would be false, a fact that has been proven in a number of court cases throughout history. In the case of Her Majesty the Queen v. Thomas Dudley & Edward Stephens (1884), Jeremy Bentham’s principal of utility presents a valid defense for the reasons that led to Crown choosing a guilty verdict. The…

however, Good (p. 3) quantitative methods have been shown most effective in exploring the relationships among variables in humanistic research (Balkin, 2014). For the purposes of the proposed research, the relationship among motivation source, substance abuse treatment compliance, and substance abuse treatment completion will be studied. Though various methods of quantitative research exist, the two designs most appropriate for the intended study are a non-experimental ex-post facto…

as the rights of the states that divided the delegates, which were resolved in the Constitution. The major governing principles that lie at the heart of the Constitution that contrasts with those of the Articles of Confederation such as legislation, Congress, executive role, national judiciary, ratification of amendments, ex post facto laws, and taxation. Legislation under the Articles of Confederation stated…

The case of Kansas v. Hendricks, 521 U.S. 346, (1997), is a United States Supreme Court case involving the constitutionality of a state civil commitment law, and how that law was being applied to persons who had been convicted of certain crimes. The law in question, was designed to civilly commit people who had a history of predatory sexual violence, and who had a personality disorder, or who had a mental abnormality (Cornell University, n.d.) In generic terms, the law was designed so that…

Samuel Nielsen Unit: 5 Question: 2 There are multiple ways that individual rights are protected in the body of the Constitution. In Article I, Section 9, clause 3 of the constitution provides that, “ no Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law will be passed.” Also, in Article I, Section 9, clause 2, individuals are guaranteed, “ the privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended.” James Madison understood the carnage these laws could employ when he said, “Bills of…

Breed specific legislation banning pit bulls from communities while making people get rid of or register a pit bull they currently own is a example of ex post facto law because the law punishes owners of pit bulls that had pit bulls before the law was even passed. Even many legislations using a grandfathering clause are unconstitutional because a true grandfathering clause would not require a pet to be registered after the law was to be passed (No Ban On Pit bulls 1). According to the fourteenth…

unforeseeable consequences of otherwise well intentioned policies and laws. In their book, Paul Roberts and Lawrence Stratten argue that a legal system designed to protect individual rights and ensure justice has become hostile and prone to abuse. The book starts out by highlighting the many cases in which citizens have been targeted, had their property seized, and been convicted as a result of prosecutorial greed, the erosion of civil liberties, and the expansion of government power. The…

Thinking about Joshua Wong’s additional sentence: Rule of Law and Rule by Law in Hong Kong On January 17, a Hong Kong court sentenced Joshua Wong, one of the leaders behind the Umbrella Revolution, an additional 3 months imprisonment term. The reason for this was a failure to vacate when prompted, the commercial district of Mong Kok, which allegedly had “adversely affected” the normal pursuit of activities for normal citizens. The sentence, given by Andrew Chan of the High Court, was but one of…