“In any event, most of the dispute relates to the issue of retroactivity and whether demands for financial assistance were made before the official request.”

“Apparent retroactivity covers the situation where legislative acts are applied to events which occurred in the past, but which have not yet been definitively concluded.”

“The prohibition applies to both criminal and civil laws, but in some civil cases, only particularly unreasonable effects of retroactivity will be found unconstitutional.”

“Then, too, it was divorced from the disagreeable features of retroactiveness and partisanship which had inspired the particularly bitter condemnation of the Salary Acts of 1816 and 1873.”