e the statute was enacted if the offense
may reasonably be regarded as a continuing disqualification for the
profession. Without offending the Constitution, a statute making it a
misdemeanor to practice medicine after conviction of a felony may be
enforced against a person so convicted before the act was passed.[1566]
But the test oath prescribed after the Civil War, whereby office
holders, teachers, or preachers were required to swear that they had not
participated in the Rebellion, were held invalid on the ground that it
had no reasonable relation to fitness to perform official or
professional duties, but rather was a punishment for past
offenses.[1567] A similar oath required of suitors in the courts also
was held void.[1568]

Changes in Punishment

Statutes which changed an indeterminate sentence law to require a judge
to impose the maximum sentence, whereas formerly he could impose a
sentence between the minimum and maximum;[1569] abolished a rule which
prevented a subsequent conviction of first-degree murder after a jury
had found the accused guilty in the second-degree by a verdict which had
been set aside;[1570] required criminals sentenced to death to be kept
thereafter in solitary confinement,[1571] or allowed a warden to fix,
within limits of one week, and keep secret the time of execution,[1572]
were held to be _ex post facto_ as applied to offenses committed prior
to their enactment. But laws providing heavier penalties for new crimes
thereafter committed by habitual criminals;[1573] changing the
punishment from hanging to electrocution, fixing the place therefor in
the penitentiary, and permitting the presence of a greater number of
invited witnesses;[1574] or providing for close confinement of six to
nine months in the penitentiary, in lieu of three to six months in jail
prior to execution, and substituting the warden for the sheriff as
hangman, have been sustained.[1575]

Changes in Procedure

An accused person does not have a right to be tried in all respects in
accordance with the law in force when the crime charged was
committed.[1576] The mode of procedure may be changed so long as the
substantial rights of the accused are not curtailed.[1577] Laws shifting
the place of trial from one county to another,[1578] increasing the
number of appellate judges and dividing the appellate court into
divisions,[1579] granting a right of appeal to the State,[1580] changing
the method of selecting and summ