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ex post facto

Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court

Definitions from Case Law

From 301 U.S. 397 - Lindsey v. State of Washington · 1937Most cited · 1,075 citing opinions

the ex post facto clause looks to the standard of punishment prescribed by a statute, rather than to the sentence actually imposed. The Constitution forbids the application of any new punitive measure to a crime already consummated, to the detriment or material disadvantage of the wrongdoer.

How often courts cite the case defining “ex post facto”

1930194019601980200020202030295

Court decisions citing the opinion that defined “ex post facto” — 1,075 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining case as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.