516
Stevens, J., dissenting
386, 390, identified four categories of ex post facto laws.2 The case before us today implicates the third Calder category, which consists of "[e]very law that changes the punishment, and inflicts a greater punishment, than the law annexed to the crime, when committed." Ibid. (emphasis in original). This Court has consistently condemned laws falling in that category. Thus, in Beazell v. Ohio, 269 U. S. 167 (1925), Justice Stone noted that it "is settled, by decisions of this Court so well known that their citation may be dispensed with, that any statute . . . which makes more burdensome the punishment for a crime, after its commission, . . . is prohibited as ex post facto." Id., at 169-170. We reaffirmed Justice Stone's observation only a few years ago: "The Beazell formulation is faithful to our best knowledge of the original understanding of the Ex Post Facto Clause: Legislatures may not retroactively . . . increase the punishment for criminal acts." Collins v. Youngblood, 497 U. S. 37, 43 (1990).
In light of the importance that the Framers placed on the Ex Post Facto Clause, we have always enforced the prohibition against the retroactive enhancement scrupulously. Any statute that authorizes an increased term of imprisonment for a past offense is invalid. Thus, although the Court has carefully examined laws changing the conditions of confinement to determine whether they are favorable or unfavorable to the prisoner, see, e. g., Rooney v. North Dakota, 196 U. S. 319, 325 (1905); In re Medley, 134 U. S. 160, 171 (1890), no Member of the Court has ever voted to uphold a statute
2 "1st. Every law that makes an action done before the passing of the law, and which was innocent when done, criminal; and punishes such action. 2d. Every law that aggravates a crime, or makes it greater than it was, when committed. 3d. Every law that changes the punishment, and inflicts a greater punishment, than the law annexed to the crime, when committed. 4th. Every law that alters the legal rules of evidence, and receives less, or different, testimony, than the law required at the time of the commission of the offence, in order to convict the offender." Calder v. Bull, 3 Dall. 386, 390 (1798) (emphasis in original).
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