Can a law be retroactive? If so, how would this be morally justified?
by 
Jeztyr - whispering in the ears of kings
ANSWERS: 5
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Do you mean retroactive? The constitution prevents you from being found guilty of something you did yesterday if a law was passed that made it illegal today. With that said, most tax laws are made retroactive to the beginning of the tax year for continuity sake.
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You cannot be penalized for something you did in the past that is now illegal but wasn't illegal when you did it. Unless you want to get into time travel and wormholes and all that... but that is another question now isn't it.
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I believe you mean "retroactive." In the United States, the US Constitution explicitly forbids ex post facto (retroactive) laws (Article 1, Section 9). As a matter of my own opinion, there can never be a justification (moral, logical, etc) for such laws.
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Or do you mean retro spective? This is in the case for non crimal things. EG the law that the government sued to collect a tax etc for the last x years was invalid, so they change the law and back date it to start. Thus making the tax that was illegal for the last x years now legal for all those years :)
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Yes. Most of the answers have cited the Constitution's prohibition of ex post facto laws to conclude the answer to be no. However, this prohibition does not apply to ALL laws. The Constitution's prohibition of ex post facto laws has been interpreted only to apply to punitive laws, not regulatory laws. Thus, any law that would punish you for actions taken that were legal when the action was engaged in would be a prohibited ex post facto law. But any law that is regulatory (e.g. registering as a sex offender or prohibition on a felons ownership of guns) would be legal. Also, ex post facto laws are legal when the confer a benefit on past acts. For example, if a law was enacted today that would reduce the prison sentences of people with drug convictions, that law could be applied retroactively, even though technically it is an ex post facto law.
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