Ellingburg v. United States · ¶25

The two Ex Post Facto Clauses refected the importance of the protection to the Founding Fathers. James Iredell believed that the protection against ex post facto laws was “the most essential right of all,” which was worth “ten thousand declarations of rights” without it. Answers to Mr. Mason's Objections to the New Constitution, in Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States 334, 368 (P. Ford ed. 1888) (reprint 1968). “A man may feel some pride in his security,” Iredell wrote, “when he knows that what he does innocently and safely to-day in accordance with the laws of his country, cannot be tortured into guilt and danger tomorrow.” Ibid. In the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton placed “the prohibition of ex post facto laws” among the greatest “securities to liberty and republicanism.” The Federalist No. 84, p. 571 (P. Ford ed. 1898). James Madison argued that ex post facto…

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