Opinion ID: 1205570
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Wording

Text: Article I, section 21, provides, simply, that [n]o ex post facto law    shall ever be passed. That is, it forbids the passage of laws after the fact. This provision ought not be read to forbid laws from having any retrospective application, however. Laws are, by design, applicable to historical facts. See Bryant Smith, Retroactive Laws and Vested Rights, 5 Tex L Rev 231, 233 (1927) (discussing concept of retroactivity). Rather, from its wording, the provision forbids only those laws that are designed to be applicable to facts that have occurred before the passage of the laws. In short, the focus of this provision is on the time when a law takes effect, State v. Robertson, 293 Or. 402, 408 n. 4, 649 P.2d 569 (1982): A law may not affect events to which it relates retroactively, if those events occurred before the law's effective date.