Cite as: 539 U. S. 607 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
gress ultimately passed a law extending unexpired limitations periods, ch. 236, 15 Stat. 183—a tailored approach to extending limitations periods that has also been taken in modern statutes, e. g., 18 U. S. C. § 3293 (notes on effective date of 1990 amendment and effect of 1989 amendment); Cal. Penal Code Ann. § 805.5 (West Supp. 2003).
Further, Congressmen such as Conkling were not the only ones who believed that laws reviving time-barred prosecutions are ex post facto. That view was echoed in roughly contemporaneous opinions by State Supreme Courts. E. g., State v. Sneed, 25 Tex. Supp. 66, 67 (1860); Moore, 43 N. J. L., at 216-217. Cf. State v. Keith, 63 N. C. 140, 145 (1869) (A State's repeal of an amnesty was "substantially an ex post facto law"). Courts, with apparent unanimity until California's decision in Frazer, have continued to state such views, and, when necessary, so to hold. E. g., People ex rel. Reibman v. Warden, 242 App. Div. 282, 285, 275 N. Y. S. 59, 62 (1934); United States v. Fraidin, 63 F. Supp. 271, 276 (Md. 1945); People v. Shedd, 702 P. 2d 267, 268 (Colo. 1985) (en banc) (per curiam); State v. Hodgson, 108 Wash. 2d 662, 667- 669, 740 P. 2d 848, 851-852 (1987) (en banc), cert. denied sub nom. Fied v. Washington, 485 U. S. 938 (1988); Commonwealth v. Rocheleau, 404 Mass. 129, 130-131, 533 N. E. 2d 1333, 1334 (1989); State v. Nunn, 244 Kan. 207, 218, 768 P. 2d 268, 277-278 (1989); State v. O'Neill, 118 Idaho 244, 247, 796 P. 2d 121, 124 (1990); State v. Hirsch, 245 Neb. 31, 39-40, 511 N. W. 2d 69, 76 (1994); State v. Schultzen, 522 N. W. 2d 833, 835 (Iowa 1994); State v. Comeau, 142 N. H. 84, 88, 697 A. 2d 497, 500 (1997) (citing State v. Hamel, 138 N. H. 392, 395-396, 643 A. 2d 953, 955-956 (1994)); Santiago v. Commonwealth, 428 Mass. 39, 42, 697 N. E. 2d 979, 981, cert. denied, 525 U. S. 1003 (1998). Cf. Thompson v. State, 54 Miss. 740, 743 (1877) (stating, without specifying further grounds, that a new law could not take away a vested statute-of-limitations defense); State v. Cookman, 127 Ore. App. 283, 289, 873 P. 2d 335, 338 (1994) (holding that a law resurrecting a time-barred crimi-
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