Cite as: 529 U. S. 513 (2000)
Opinion of the Court
tioner's pro se petition for certiorari, 527 U. S. 1002 (1999), and appointed counsel, id., at 1051.
II
To prohibit legislative Acts "contrary to the first principles of the social compact and to every principle of sound legislation," 6 the Framers included provisions they considered to be "perhaps greater securities to liberty and republicanism than any [the Constitution] contains." 7 The provisions declare:
"No State shall . . . pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts . . . ." U. S. Const., Art. I, § 10.8
The proscription against ex post facto laws "necessarily requires some explanation; for, naked and without explanation, it is unintelligible, and means nothing." Calder v. Bull, 3 Dall. 386, 390 (1798) (Chase, J.). In Calder v. Bull, Justice Chase stated that the necessary explanation is derived from English common law well known to the Framers: "The expressions 'ex post facto laws,' are technical, they had been in use long before the Revolution, and had acquired an appropriate meaning, by Legislators, Lawyers, and Authors." Id., at 391; see also id., at 389 ("The prohibition . . . very probably arose from the knowledge, that the Parliament of Great Britain claimed and exercised a power to pass such laws . . ."); id., at 396 (Paterson, J.). Specifically, the
facto violation); Murphy v. Sowders, 801 F. 2d 205 (CA6 1986) (same); Murphy v. Kentucky, 652 S. W. 2d 69 (Ky. 1983) (same). See also Idaho v. Byers, 102 Idaho 159, 627 P. 2d 788 (1981) (judicial change in witness corroboration rule may not be applied retroactively); Bowyer v. United States, 422 A. 2d 973 (DC 1980) (same).
6 The Federalist No. 44, p. 282 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961) (J. Madison).
7 Id., No. 84, at 511 (A. Hamilton).
8 Article I, § 9, cl. 3, has a similar prohibition applicable to Congress: "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."
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