EX POST FACTO CLAUSES IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AFTER THE END OF THE CIVIL WAR

Ex post facto clauses are a part ot the federal Constitution of the United States from its beggining in 1787. In 1798 Justice Samuel Chase defined four types of prohibited retroactive legislation. Since then, Chase categories became the cornerstone of constitutional interpretation regarding ex post facto legislation. After the Civil war, Justice Stephen J. Field came up with his own categories for detecting ex post facto laws. Basically they were variations of Chase categories. Applying those standards in 1867, for the first time since the adoption of the Constitution, two laws were pronounced impermissible ex post facto legislation.