Definitions

ex post facto

[eks pohst fak-toh] / ˈɛks ˌpoʊst ˈfæk toʊ /

ADJECTIVE

after the fact

Synonyms

WEAK

attendant done afterward post factum posterior postmortem retroactive retrospective sequent subsequent succeeding

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The issue is not just to admit, ex post facto, that we were wrong, but to think more deeply about why we were wrong.

From Salon

“This is a violation of the ex post facto clause of the constitution,” said Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers.

From Washington Times

As for the claim of ex post facto justice, Robert Jackson — the American prosecutor who believed aggression enabled all the other war crimes that followed — summed up the charge:

From Salon

The ban on ex post facto laws, the court said, prohibits increasing the punishment for a crime after the crime was committed, and that it does not apply in the inmates’ cases.

From Seattle Times

Because genocide became an official crime only after the Nuremberg trials, Germany decided in 1949 that charging former Nazis with this crime would amount to ex post facto law.

From Washington Post