Your example hurts my head a little because it's very... newspeak to say it is currently illegal and therefore always has been, as if all times are now.
But here's an example that doesn't make laws retroactive--this comes up in architecture and building codes, because when new building codes are passed, the old architecture still exists. Sometimes there is a grandfather clause--is that the phrase you're looking for? Old buildings are grandfathered in, and only buildings built after the code passed have to meet it.
It may also be worth noting that there is a difference between passing/repealing a law (changing what is legal, where what is legal before and after the point of change is different) and declaring a law unconstitutional (saying it was never legal).
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-10-07 08:51 pm (UTC)But here's an example that doesn't make laws retroactive--this comes up in architecture and building codes, because when new building codes are passed, the old architecture still exists. Sometimes there is a grandfather clause--is that the phrase you're looking for? Old buildings are grandfathered in, and only buildings built after the code passed have to meet it.
It may also be worth noting that there is a difference between passing/repealing a law (changing what is legal, where what is legal before and after the point of change is different) and declaring a law unconstitutional (saying it was never legal).