Ellingburg v. United States · ¶36

The other two seriatim opinions in Calder that addressed the question agreed. Justice Paterson explained that “the meaning, annexed to the terms ex post facto laws, unquestionably refers to crimes, and nothing else.” Id., at 396. Justice Iredell—an adamant proponent of the Ex Post Facto Clauses, see supra, at 170—likewise thought that they did not “extend to civil cases, to cases that merely affect the private property of citizens.” Calder, 3 Dall., at 400. Instead, the Clauses applied only to laws that retroactively “infict a punishment” for an “offence.” Ibid.

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