John,
We're already in agreement from what I can tell, but I'll do
a little good-natured nitpicking anyway....
 -=> Quoting John Sampson to Walter Luffman <=-
 JS> Walt, you forgot the Lauttenberg ammendment making the possession of a
 JS> firearm by someone convicted of a crime of "domestic violence",
 JS> illegal. THAT lovely piece of LIbEral legislation is retroactive as
 JS> well. 
 JS> Cops, who had been hired by departments AFTER their moment of
 JS> stupidity, found themselves in danger of losing their jobs.
Good intentions, poor thinking by the author, bad law.  Nothing
unusual there, and conservatives are frequently guilty of
equally stupid legislations.  But you're right, I had forgotten
Lauttenberg.
 JS> Granted, domestic violence is not acceptable. However, to make a law
 JS> retroactive simply for political gain is just plain wrong. In fact,
 JS> making a law retroactive, generally, is improper.
I've been trying to think of situations where making a law
retroactive is a good idea.  There are a few examples, I
suppose, but all I've come up with are laws that retroactively
legalize a humanitarian action (such as cutting the red tape
and recognising refugees from Cuba as political refugees during
those first months following Castro's seizing control and
establishing a Communist government).  And even those laws
eventually turn around and bite you, unless safeguards are
built-in and used or the laws are one-time-only acts.
 JS> There are some immigration laws that ARE retroactive. The definition
 JS> of "aggravated felony" has been expanded to include, among other
 JS> crimes, theft related offenses for which a sentence of one year or more
 JS> in jail was imposed (suspended sentences count).
 JS> It makes no difference as to when that conviction occurred. If it
 JS> happened, the offending alien is now an aggravated felon in the eyes
 JS> of the law. And as such, is removable.
Yes, this qualifies as a retroactive law _if_ the offending
alien was already in this country legally before it was
enacted.  Otherwise, it isn't truly retroactive IMHO because
it merely recognises the offender's previous history and makes
entering the country (after the law was passed) with such a
history (regardless of when the disqualifying offenses occured)
illegal.
Of course, I'm not a lawyer, nor do I know the exact wording
of the law in question, which makes my opinion worth exactly
nothing...except when I go to the polls.
Walter, Forked Deer River Ilks
wluffman@usit.net
... Pour me another cup of that Colombian bean-juice.
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