1. Calder v. Bull, (1798)
2. Facts: There was a dispute over a will. A probate court decree had refused to approve a will. The persons who were the beneficiaries of that will had the judgment set aside and a new hearing was granted, at which the will was approved. There was a Connecticut law that allowed the probate court to be set aside.
3. Procedural Posture: The persons who would have inherited the property if the will was void brought an action to declare the law setting aside their initial favorable judgment as violating the ex-post facto clause.
4. Issue: Whether the Connecticut law was valid.
5. Holding: Yes.
6. Reasoning: [Chase] reasoned that there were fundamental liberty reasons why the law was sound. The purposes for which the constitution was written was to give effect to a “social compact” wherein the government was established to protect the natural and preexisting rights of the citizens. The nature of these rights determines the limits of the legislative power to infrnge on these rights. The government can not have the power to enact leglislation that violates the natural laws of civilized society that it was established to protect, even if such natural right is not explicitly mentioned in the constitution. An example is this case, the government can not violate the right of an antecedent lawful private contract or the right of private property.
7. Dissent Reasoning: [Iredell] stated that the citizens had framed their constitution to define the precise boundaries of the leglislative power. Thus, if the legislature violates this power, its act is certainly void. However, if the legislature passes a law within its consitutional boundaries, the judiciary does not have the power to use subjective determinations of what is “contrary to natural law” to strike it down.
