Retroactive law

“ The Government admits that the normal meaning of 'accrued' controls when the 1948 Act is applied prospectively, that is, to claims arising after the Act's effective date. But construing the Act in a way that requires its six year limitation period to begin before 1948 gives the law a retroactive effect, shortening the time for suit on some prior claims and summarily cutting off others. To prevent retroactivity we are urged to depart from the normal meaning of 'accrued' when § 4 (c) is applied to pre-existing claims. ”

“ That there exists a general power in the state governments to enact retrospective or retroactive laws, is a point too well settled to admit of question at this day. The only limit upon this power in the states by the Federal Constitution, and therefore the only source of cognizance or control with respect to that power existing in this court, is the provision that these retrospective laws shall not be such as are technically ex post facto, or such as impair the obligation of contracts. ”

“ Whatever else may be said of the factors that determine whether a procedural protection affects substantial rights, it is difficult to imagine how a retroactive law could, when viewed from the standpoint of the date the offense was committed, implicate substantial rights of any defendant if the law does no more than expand the flexibility of postconviction processes available to the State with respect to a defendant who is subject to a valid conviction and sentence. ”

“ Law and other regulation shall not have retroactive effect. Exceptionally, if required so by the public interest established in the process of law adoption, individual provisions of the law may have retroactive effect. Provision of the Criminal code may have retroactive effect only if it is more lenient for the perpetrator of a criminal offense. Article 148 (Legality of individual acts) Individual legal act shall be in conformity with the law. Final individual legal acts shall enjoy court protection. ”

“ When the attention of the court is called to the proposition that if such effect is given to the change of the constitution it would, in this case, be liable to objection as an ex post facto law, the only answer is that there is nothing in it, as the change is simply in a matter of procedure. Whatever may be the essential nature of the change, it is one which, to the defendant, involves the difference between life and death, and the retroactive character of the change cannot be denied. ”

“ Specifically, the Arkansas Supreme Court took the view that, whatever else Arkansas law might require, petitioners could not receive tax refunds if Scheiner is not retroactive under the test of Chevron Oil.
The determination whether a constitutional decision of this Court is retroactive-that is, whether the decision applies to conduct or events that occurred before the date of the decision-is a matter of federal law. When questions of state law are at issue, state courts generally have the authority to determine the retroactivity of their own decisions. See Great Northern R. Co. ”

“ But where the remaindermen's interests are contingent and do not vest until the donor's death subsequent to the adoption of the statute, the tax is valid. [470] Another example of valid retroactive taxation is to be found in a New York statute amending a 1930 estate tax law. The amendment required inclusion in the decedent's gross estate, for tax computation purposes, of property in respect of which the decedent exercised after 1930, by will, a nongeneral power of appointment created prior to that year. ”

“ It is evident that Congress intended to fill this gap when it enacted § 117 (q) in 1956. But we are not able to say that Congress intended thereby to reopen for retroactive adjustment tax years with respect to which refund claims were already barred by limitations.
Section 117 (q) does not in terms waive the application of the statute of limitations to refund claims then finally barred. On its face, § 117 (q) does no more than overrule the Commissioner's position on a matter of substantive law respecting the years 1950 1954. ”

“ The criteria guiding resolution of the question implicates (a) the purpose to be served by the new standards, (b) the extent of the reliance by law enforcement authorities on the old standards, and (c) the effect on the administration of justice of a retroactive application of the new standards. ' (T) he retroactivity or nonretroactivity of a rule is not automatically determined by the provision of the Constitution on which the dictate is based. ”

“ In conclusion, the Court in deciding these cases seems largely to have forgotten the limitations that accompany its functions as a court of law. For the retroactivity doctrine announced today bespeaks more considerations of policy than of legal principle. ”

“ The act of the 3d of April 1826, is retrospective in its operation, and so designed by its framers. It is not for this cause unconstitutional. The power of a legislature to pass retrospective laws, is no where taken away, or prohibited by the constitution of the United States. It is true, a state cannot pass an ex post facto law which is a retrospective criminal law, but it can a retrospective civil law. ”

“ In focusing solely on the pendency of a case before the court rather than on the reliance interests of either the defendant or the government, Griffith implicitly rejected the rationale of our prior retroactivity doctrine: that new decisions should not be applied retroactively so as to frustrate the expectations of parties who had justifiably relied on prior law. ”

“ The retroactive aspects of legislation, as well as the prospective aspects, must meet the test of due process, and the justifications for the latter may not suffice for the former.' But that burden is met simply by showing that the retroactive application of the legislation is itself justified by a rational legislative purpose. ”

“ The Thorpe formulation (" [A] n appellate court must apply the law in effect at the time it renders its decision," 393 U.S., at 281, 89 S.Ct., at 526 (emphasis added) ) suggests that the rule of retroactivity applies only when the law has been changed between the initial and the appellate decision. The Bradley formulation (" [A] change in the law is to be given effect in a pending case" (emphasis added) ) more naturally suggests that all judicial decisions must apply current law, no matter when the change occurred. ”

“ The decisions lend no support to the contention now urged on behalf of the plaintiff in error, that Congress intended the act of 1905 to be retroactive in all cases where the work was done after the passage of the amendment. ”

“ Any test of retroactivity will leave room for disagreement in hard cases, and is unlikely to classify the enormous variety of legal changes with perfect philosophical clarity. However, retroactivity is a matter on which judges tend to have 'sound...instinct [s] ,'...and familiar considerations of fair notice, reasonable reliance, and settled expectations offer sound guidance." Landgraf, 511 U.S., at 270 (opinion for the Court by Stevens, J.) . ”

“ As a court of law we have no right on direct review to treat one case differently from another with respect to constitutional provisions applicable to both. As regards cases coming here on collateral review, the problem of retroactivity is in truth none other than one of resettling the limits of the reach of the Great Writ, which under the recent decisions of this Court has been given almost boundless sweep. ”

“ Significant hardships would be imposed on cities, bondholders, and others connected with municipal utilities if our decision today were given full retroactive effect. Where a decision of this Court could produce substantial inequitable results if applied retroactively, there is ample basis in our cases for avoiding the 'injustice or hardship' by a holding of nonretroactivity. ”

“ Because it forces us to consider the disruption that our new decisional rules cause, retroactivity combines with stare decisis to prevent us from altering the law each time the opportunity presents itself. ”

“ Arguably it would not be giving retroactive effect to a new statutory interest rate for judgments if one applied that rate to all outstanding balances on judgments, with respect to all periods of time after the statute's effective date-regardless of when the judgments were rendered. It depends upon what one considers to be the determinative event by which retroactivity or prospectivity is to be calculated. If it is the entry of judgment, then only judgments rendered after the effective date will be covered by prospective application ”

“ Schumer, 520 U.S. 939, 951 (1997) , that a statute that "creates jurisdiction where none previously existed" is "as much subject to our presumption against retroactivity as any other." See also Republic of Austria v. Altmann, 541 U.S. 677, 695 (2004) (opinion for the Court by Stevens, J.) ; id., at 722 (Kennedy, J., dissenting) . The Court gives our retroactivity jurisprudence a dazzling clarity in asserting that "subsections (e) (2) and (e) (3) 'confer' jurisdiction in a manner that cannot conceivably give rise to retroactivity questions under our precedents." [2] Ante, at [p. 663] 582. ”

“ Assuming that statutes of limitation like other types of legislation could be so manipulated that their retroactive effects would offend the Constitution, certainly it cannot be said that lifting the bar of a statute of limitation so as to restore a remedy lost through mere lapse of time is per se an offense against the Fourteenth Amendment. Nor has the appellant pointed out special hardships or oppressive effects which result from lifting the bar in this class of cases with retrospective force. ”

“ There are certain principles which have been adhered to with great strictness by the courts in relation to the construction of statutes as to whether they are or are not retroactive in their effect. The presumption is very strong that a statute was not meant to act retrospectively, and it ought never to receive such a construction if it is susceptible of any other. ”

“ Courts of justice agree that no statute, however positive in its terms, is to be construed as designed to interfere with existing contracts, rights of actions, or with vested rights, unless the intention that it shall so operate is expressly declared or is to be necessarily implied, and pursuant to that rule courts will apply new statutes only to future cases, unless there is something in the nature of the case or in the language of the new provision which shows that they were intended to have a retroactive operation. ”

“ When Congress provided in § 2 (g) of the Act that regulations 'may contain such provisions as the Administrator deems necessary to prevent the circumvention or evasion te reof,' 56 Stat. 23, 27, 50 U.S.C. Supp. V, § 902 (g) , 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 902 (g) , it plainly authorized effective administrative remedies for dealing with evasion.
If such an order is to be termed 'retroactive,' it comes within the Court's recent ruling that 'such retroactivity must be balanced against the mischief of producing a result which is contrary to a statutory design or to legal and equitable principles. ”

“ In our view, the finality concerns underlying Justice Harlan's approach to retroactivity are applicable in the capital sentencing context, as are the two exceptions to his general rule of nonretroactivity. See Teague, supra, 489 U.S., at 311-313, 109 S.Ct., at 1075-1077.
As we indicated in Teague, " [i] n general . . . a case announces a new rule when it breaks new ground or imposes a new obligation on the States or the Federal Government." ”

“ If it comes within the category of retrospective legislation, as has been argued, we find nothing in the Constitution limiting the power of Congress to amend or correct omissions in previous acts. It is well settled that where there is no direct constitutional prohibition, a State may pass retrospective laws, such as, in their operation, may affect suits pending, and give to a party a remedy which he did not previously possess, or modify an existing remedy, or remove an impediment in the way of legal proceedings. ”

“ The Court says that 'to compute the six-year limitation period from the date which the trier of fact establishes as the date of death would be to say that the beneficiary's right to recover had expired before she could have successfully prosecuted a lawsuit to enforce that rights.' I understand neither the logic nor the policy of this argument. Surely in every lawsuit on a life insurance policy the statute of limitations runs from the date of death and yet the date of death is something to be proved in the lawsuit itself. ”

“ Justice BLACK'S dissent that the weight to be accorded the benefits of finality is as controlling in the context of post-conviction relief as in the context of retroactive relief. The availability of post-conviction relief serves significantly to secure the integrity of proceedings at or before trial and on appeal. No such service is performed by extending rights retroactively. Thus, collateral relief, unlike retroactive relief, contributes to the present vitality of all constitutional rights whether or not they bear on the integrity of the fact-finding process. ”

“ The Thorpe-Bradley presumption of retroactivity, which is arguably formulated to apply to a relatively narrow class of cases but which logically must be extended across the board, misleads prospective litigants and confuses judges of the lower courts. I would say that it confuses even Congress itself-except that I believe and hope that legislators choose their language with the assumptions that just men and women normally entertain, rather than the assumptions derived from consulting the latest decision of this Court. ”