A retroactive executive order, requiring agencies to assess the effects of their actions on investment-backed expectations, will also help raise consciousness about the unfair nature of retroactive rule making. At this stage, however, until these reforms are tried, a constitutional amendment banning retroactive legislation is not a good idea, in part because of the difficulties, which I have not discussed, in assessing when legislation is retroactive. Most important of all is the need to build a political consensus against such laws. Everyone opposes changing the rules after the game has been played. People respond to stories about individuals having had the rug pulled out from under them.
Retroactive laws are hostile to fundamental fairness.
Let us make their existence a political issue, so that a consensus can form urging that they be prohibited entirely, except where curative. Grover Cleveland, Third Annual Message, December 6, 1887. The Heritage Foundation is committed to building an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity and civil society flourish. The Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Foundation is a Member Organization.