Seventh Circuit Announces A New Standard For Analyzing Violations Of The Ex Post Facto Clause

• Published date: 25 August 2022
• Law Firm: Foley & Lardner
• Author: Mr Eric Pearson

Those who practice municipal law in the three states that make up the Seventh Circuit now have a new standard to consider when arguing that a law violates the Constitution's Ex Post Facto Clause.

Laws that are both retroactive and penal run afoul of the Ex Post Facto Clause. Until recently, courts in the Seventh Circuit decided the first prong of that analysis'that is, whether a law was retroactive'by applying a rule adopted in United States v. Leach, 639 F.3d 769 (7th Cir. 2011), and Vasquez v. Foxx, 895 F.3d 515 (7th Cir. 2018). The upshot of the Leach-Vasquez rule was that a law was not retroactive if it applied "only to conduct occurring after its enactment." Vasquez, 895 F.3d at 520.

Courts within the Seventh Circuit applied that rule consistently, even as decisions in other circuits and states around the...