544
Opinion of the Court
tency of certain classes of persons as witnesses, relate to modes of procedure only, in which no one can be said to have a vested right, and which the State, upon grounds of public policy, may regulate at pleasure. Such regulations of the mode in which the facts constituting guilt may be placed before the jury, can be made applicable to prosecutions or trials thereafter had, without reference to the date of the commission of the offence charged." Id., at 589-590 (emphases added).
Thompson v. Missouri, also relied upon by Texas, involved a similar ex post facto challenge to the retrospective application of a law permitting the introduction of expert handwriting testimony as competent evidence, where the rule in place at the time of the offense did not permit such evidence to be introduced. Mainly on the authority of Hopt, the Court rejected Thompson's ex post facto challenge as well.
Texas' reliance on Hopt is misplaced. Article 38.07 is simply not a witness competency rule.31 It does not "simply enlarge the class of persons who may be competent to testify," and it does not "only remove existing restrictions upon the competency of certain classes of persons as witnesses." 110 U. S., at 589-590. Both before and after the amendment, the victim's testimony was competent evidence. Texas Rule of Criminal Evidence 601(a) already prescribes that "[e]very person is competent to be a witness except as otherwise provided in these rules," and Rule 601(a)(2) already contains its own provision respecting child wit-31 We recognize that the Court of Appeals stated Article 38.07 "merely 'removes existing restrictions upon the competency of certain classes of persons as witnesses,' " 963 S. W. 2d, at 836 (quoting Hopt, 110 U. S., at 590); see supra, at 520. Whether a state law is properly characterized as falling under the Ex Post Facto Clause, however, is a federal question we determine for ourselves. Cf. Lindsey v. Washington, 301 U. S. 397, 400 (1937).
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