Opinion ID: 2286316
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Prohibition Against Ex Post Facto Laws

Text: In response to our decision in Noble, the Department of Corrections stopped abiding by its 1988 regulation which preserved street time credit following revocation of parole, and started applying the rule that prisoners forfeited their street time when their parole was revoked. Appellants argue that the 1988 regulation was the law in effect when they committed their offenses, and that therefore the Department's retroactive application of a new rule which made their punishment more onerous by depriving them of street time credit infringed the Constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws. Retroactive application of a law that imposes a greater punishment than the law in effect when the crime was committed is forbidden by the Ex Post Facto clauses of the Constitution. [6] See Lynce v. Mathis, 519 U.S. 433, 439-41, 117 S.Ct. 891, 137 L.Ed.2d 63 (1997); Weaver v. Graham, 450 U.S. 24, 28-29, 101 S.Ct. 960, 67 L.Ed.2d 17 (1981). A statute retroactively increasing the penalties imposed upon revocation of parole would fall within the prohibition, see Johnson v. United States, 529 U.S. 694, 701, 120 S.Ct. 1795, 146 L.Ed.2d 727 (2000). And since administrative regulations that are validly promulgated pursuant to statutory authority have the force and effect of statutes, see Dankman v. District of Columbia Bd. of Elections and Ethics, 443 A.2d 507, 513 (D.C.1981) (en banc), we agree with appellants that a new regulation which enhances punishment beyond what was formerly authorized by a valid penal regulation is within the ex post facto prohibition. These principles are of no avail to appellants, however, because our holding in Noble means that the regulation promulgated by the Department of Corrections in 1988 was not a valid regulation. When this court interpreted the GTCA in Noble, we did not undo its repeal of the street time forfeiture provision of § 24-206(a); rather, we declared that the GTCA never effected a repeal of that provision, and that § 24-206(a) continued in full force and effect after the GTCA was enacted. See Rivers v. Roadway Express, Inc., 511 U.S. 298, 312-13, 114 S.Ct. 1510, 128 L.Ed.2d 274 (1994) (A judicial construction of a statute is an authoritative statement of what the statute meant before as well as after the decision of the case giving rise to that construction.); see also United States v. McKie, 315 U.S.App. D.C. 367, 371,73 F.3d 1149, 1153 (1996) (a decision interpreting a statute does not change the statute but rather interprets the law as enacted by the legislature). The 1988 regulation was, therefore, invalid from its inception because it was directly contrary to the governing statutory language, namely, the provision in § 24-206(a) that required forfeiture of street time upon revocation of parole. The Department of Corrections had no authority to abrogate § 24-206(a), and the Department's correction of its erroneous interpretation of that law was not the same thing as a change in the law. The corrective action therefore did not run afoul of the ex post facto taboo. [A]n agency misinterpretation of a statute cannot support an ex post facto claim. . . . `The ex post facto clause of the Constitution does not give [appellants] a vested right in such an erroneous interpretation.' Caballery v. United States Parole Comm'n, 673 F.2d 43, 47 (2d Cir.1982) (quoting Mileham v. Simmons, 588 F.2d 1279, 1280 (9th Cir.1979)). [7]