4 ms·

Ex post facto deals with criminal cases and things that generally negatively affect an individual.

• jimmaswell 6y ago
  "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed." I don't see how this could not apply to a tax, but butchering the meaning of clearly worded clauses of the constitution is SOP for the courts so who knows.
  • dragonwriter 6y ago
    Both “Bill of Attainder” and “ex post facto law” were existing legal terms of art at the time the provision was written, and both were then (and remain) terms of art relating to criminal law.
    • jimmaswell 6y ago
      So congress could effectively fine people for things they did in the past with new taxes, and it would be completely constitutional. Seems like a pretty bad loophole.
      • dragonwriter 6y ago
        > So congress could effectively fine people for things they did in the past with new taxes, and it would be completely constitutional. If it is effectively a criminal fine, no, that would still be an ex post facto law; the Supreme Court has struck down at least one retroactive federal tax on that ground [0]. And, more commonly, retroactive tax increases have been invalidated on other grounds (mostly, substantive due process under the 5th, or for state action 14th, amendment.) [0] But note that sneaking in what is effectively a criminal penalty as a tax is also unconstitutional if it isn't retroactive, since it will still violate a host of other Constitutional protections applicable to criminal punishment, so any tax struck down as ex post facto would necessarily be struck down even if it applied only to future “taxable” events.