Subject: Definition: Bill of Attainder.
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Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:22:57 -0700

Bill of Attainder

Definition: A legislative act that singles out an individual or group
for punishment without a trial.

The Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 9,
paragraph 3 provides that: "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law will be
passed."

"The Bill of Attainder Clause was intended not as a narrow, technical (and
therefore soon to be outmoded) prohibition, but rather as an implementation of
the separation of powers, a general safeguard against legislative exercise of
the judicial function or more simply - trial by legislature."  U.S. v.
Brown, 381 U.S. 437, 440 (1965).

"These clauses of the Constitution are not of the broad, general nature of
the Due Process Clause, but refer to rather precise legal terms which had a
meaning under English law at the time the Constitution was adopted.  A bill
of attainder was a legislative act that singled out one or more persons and
imposed punishment on them, without benefit of trial.  Such actions were
regarded as odious by the framers of the Constitution because it was the
traditional role of a court, judging an individual case, to impose
punishment."  William H. Rehnquist, The Supreme
Court, page 166.

"Bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, and laws impairing the obligations
of contracts, are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to
every principle of sound legislation. ... The sober people of America are weary
of the fluctuating policy which has directed the public councils.  They
have seen with regret and indignation that sudden changes and legislative
interferences, in cases affecting personal rights, become jobs in the hands of
enterprising and influential speculators, and snares to the more-industrious and
less-informed part of the community."  James Madison,
Federalist Number 44, 1788.

Supreme Court cases construing the Bill of Attainder clause include:

Ex Parte Garland, 4 Wallace 333 (1866).

Cummings v. Missouri, 4 Wallace 277 (1866).

U.S. v. Brown, 381 U.S. 437 (1965).

Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, 433 U.S.425 (1977).

Selective Service Administration v. Minnesota PIRG, 468 U.S. 841
(1984).

See also, SBC v. FCC.