634
Kennedy, J., dissenting
The case of State v. Sneed, 25 Tex. Supp. 66, 67 (1860), cited ante, at 617, is inapposite. There, the court avoided the issue by holding that the statute was not meant to apply retroactively. Interpreting the statute so as to avoid invalidation on constitutional grounds, Sneed did not pass on the merits. Even if the court addressed the merits, its cursory paragraph-long opinion, reproduced by the majority in its entirety, ante, at 629, contains no reference to Justice Chase's classification, nor indeed any analysis whatsoever. This unreasoned opinion scarcely supports the majority's novel interpretation of Calder's second category.
In the remaining 17 cases, the question was not presented. As the Court itself concedes, eight of these cases considered only extensions of unexpired statutes of limitations, and upheld them. Ante, at 618. The Court does not mention that nine other cases have done so as well. See People ex rel. Reibman v. Warden, 242 App. Div. 282, 275 N. Y. S. 59 (1934); State v. Hodgson, 108 Wash. 2d 662, 740 P. 2d 848 (1987) (en banc); State v. Nunn, 244 Kan. 207, 768 P. 2d 268 (1989); State v. O'Neill, 118 Idaho 244, 796 P. 2d 121 (1990); State v. Schultzen, 522 N. W. 2d 833 (Iowa 1994); State v. Comeau, 142 N. H. 84, 697 A. 2d 497 (1997); State v. Hamel, 138 N. H. 392, 643 A. 2d 953 (1994); Santiago v. Commonwealth, 428 Mass. 39, 697 N. E. 2d 979 (1998), cited ante, at 617. Because these cases did not need to decide whether the Ex Post Facto Clause would bar the extension of expired limitations periods, the question did not receive the same amount of attention as if the courts were required to dispose of the issue.
The case law compiled by the Court is deficient, furthermore, at a more fundamental level. Our precedents hold that the reach of the Ex Post Facto Clause is strictly limited to the precise formulation of the Calder categories. We have made it clear that these categories provide "an exclusive definition of ex post facto laws," Collins v. Youngblood, 497 U. S. 37, 42 (1990), and have admonished that it is
Page: Index Previous 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007