Court Opinion

ID: 9842163
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-22 20:13:16.531437+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:09:50.003261
License: Public Domain

Justice Stevens,
dissenting.
While I have joined Justice Scaua’s entire dissent, I must add this brief caveat. The perception that common-law judges had no power to change the law was unquestionably an important aspect of our judicial heritage in the 17th century but, as he has explained, that perception has played a role of diminishing importance in later years. Whether the most significant changes in that perception occurred before the end of the 18th century or early in the 19th century is, in my judgment, a tangential question that need not be resolved in order to decide this case correctly. For me, far more important than the historical issue is the fact that the majority has undervalued the threat to liberty that is posed whenever the criminal law is changed retroactively.