ex post

[eks pohst]

adjective

1. based on analysis of past performance (ex ante ).

Word History and Origins

Origin of ex post¹

1635–45; < Latin: from (what lies) behind, according to (what lies) behind

Example Sentences

If this deeply flawed conviction is affirmed, it will violate the rights of this defendant and serve as a dangerous precedent and justification for the ex post facto concoction of “zombie” crimes against targeted political opponents on both sides of the partisan divide.

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Trump, who struggles with even a basic understanding of middle school level English and history, apparently thinks that he can ex post facto incantate legalistic-sounding phrases like “perpetrating, attempting, or threatening an invasion or predatory incursion” and magically shoehorn his rushed and hushed detentions and deportations of migrants into a law meant for members of a hostile foreign nation during armed conflict.

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But it was only when Adams encouraged Smith of the Los Angeles Philharmonic to take a look at the score, and Mattingly began to send along recorded clips, that “Stranger Love,” long finished, was ex post facto commissioned by the Philharmonic for a staged production.

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

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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:

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