Sacramento Business Daily

What constitutional right guarantees advance warning before we break a law?

Can you please give me the specific section/area of the US Constitution that deals with ex post facto laws? For example, the government must give advance notice of the laws to its people before it convicts them of breaking the laws. More specifically, i'm interested in any part of the US Constituation that deals with the government requiring to give us advanced notice of the laws before we break them.

Public Comments

1. I think you're slightly confused. There is no "warning system" there to inform people that what they are doing is unlawful. It is the responsibility of the citizen to understand the law and act accordingly. What you may be referencing with the ex post facto laws is something else. Under that law, if you commit a crime before it is considered a crime, you cannot be tried for it. For instance, before spam was illegal, spamming other people was socially acceptable and spammers who did that before anti-spam laws were passed could not be found guilty for actions committed before the law was passed, only after.