Ellingburg v. United States: Oral Argument

Case Summary:The U.S. Supreme Court considered whether restitution imposed under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act constitutes criminal punishment rather than a purely civil debt. The case specifically questions whether Congress’s extension of the time period for collecting restitution, and applying that extension to offenses committed before the change, violates the Constitution’s Ex Post Facto Clause by making the punishment for those earlier crimes more severe after the fact.