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What was decision in the US Supreme Court case Calder v. Bull 1798?
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
Calder v. Bull, 3 US 386 (1798)
Answer
The Supreme Court upheld an Act of the Connecticut State Legislature changing the way a will was probated, and ordering at least one case to be retried despite being outside the time frame for appeal, was not an ex post facto law in violation of Article I, Section 10 of the US Constitution. The Court declared that the Ex Post Facto Clause applied only to criminal, not civil cases.
Explanation
In 1795, the Connecticut State Legislature passed a resolution regarding the way wills were probated that vacated a 1793 judgment of a Hartford Probate Court, which found the will of Norman Morrison invalid. In the original case, the respondent, Bull, was awarded property rights by the Court. Connecticut vacated the earlier court decision in light of the new law, and order the case remanded to the original court for a new trial. Following the new rules, the probate court approved Morrison's will as valid.
Calder appealed on the grounds that Connecticut violated Article I, Section 10 of the US Constitution by passing an ex post facto law (a law applied retroactively), which explicitly prohibits government from later penalizing a person or entity for actions taken when those actions were legal. In most cases, laws can only apply to future cases, not to past cases.
Justice Chase, who wrote one of the per seriatim opinions (each justice writes his own opinion, serially) of the court, distinguished between what he considered ex post facto laws and retrospective laws, stating the latter are not a violation of the Constitution:
"Every ex post facto law must necessarily be retrospective; but every retrospective law is not an ex post facto law: The former, only, are prohibited. Every law that takes away, or impairs, rights vested, agreeably to existing laws, is retrospective, and is generally unjust; and may be oppressive; and it is a good general rule, that a law should have no retrospect: but there are cases in which laws may justly, and for the benefit of the community, and also of individuals, relate to a time antecedent to their commencement; as statutes of oblivion, or of pardon. They are certainly retrospective, and literally both concerning, and after, the facts committed. But I do not consider any law ex post facto, within the prohibition, that mollifies the rigor of the criminal law; but only those that create, or aggravate, the crime; or encrease the punishment, or change the rules of evidence, for the purpose of conviction. Every law that is to have an operation before the making thereof, as to commence at an antecedent time; or to save time from the statute of limitations; or to excuse acts which were unlawful, and before committed, and the like; is retrospective. But such laws may be proper or necessary, as the case may be."
According to Chase, retrospective laws are acceptable when they work to the public benefit or makes a previous law or its application less restrictive or more protective of individual rights.
"There is a great and apparent difference between making an UNLAWFUL act LAWFUL; and the making an innocent action criminal, and punishing it as a CRIME. The expressions 'ex post facto laws,' are technical..."
Calder distinguished between criminal rights and individual rights, applying different standards to each, and holding that ex post facto laws are only applicable in criminal, not civil, cases. This case explored the source of individual rights, and the ability of the Supreme Court to uphold those rights, which may be considered an early use of the doctrine of substantive due process.
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
The decision in Calder v. Bull (1798) was that state legislatures have the power to pass ex post facto laws, as long as they do not violate the Constitution. The Court held that the Connecticut law in question, which retroactively altered the distribution of an individual's estate, did not violate the Constitution's prohibition on ex post facto laws. The decision clarified the scope of state legislative power in relation to ex post facto laws.
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