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What’s a Bill of Attainder?

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Bills allow punishment without trial, dating back to 1321 in English common law. Bills of exchange were used in colonies and motivated the American Revolution. The US Constitution prohibits them as a violation of separation of powers.

A bill is an act of a legislature or parliament that identifies a group or individual as guilty of a crime. It allows the offender or offenders to be punished without the benefit of a trial or court hearing, and sets the punishment. By passing a bill, a legislator can plead guilt and take away the liberty, life, or property of a particular group or individual. Credit cards are no longer used in countries such as the United States, Great Britain and Canada.

Bills of Aexeder have a long history in English common law dating back to 1321 when they were used to punish supporters of King Edward II. English monarchs mainly used them to inflict the death penalty on people found guilty of treason or rebellion in cases where it might be difficult to prove guilt in a court of law. Usually, such a deed of trust carried with it a provision on corruption of blood or defilement stating that the person’s property could not pass to his heirs. In 1798 they were last used in England to punish the leader of the Irish rebellion. Bills or writs of attainment, as they are sometimes called, were not fully abolished in England until the 1870s.

Bills of exchange were commonly used in England, so they applied to the British colonies and became part of the legal procedures of countries such as Canada and the United States. One of the motivations of the American Revolution was the outrage of the use of bills of exchange in the colonies. Despite this, during the American Revolution, they proved to be a useful tool for the colonists. Legislatures in many colonies passed bills to establish punishments and penalties against people deemed disloyal to the American cause.

After the Revolution, it was a whole other story. The unjust use of acts of law by the British motivated the prohibition of enshrining them into law in the United States Constitution. The Constitution expressly prohibits a state or federal government from passing legislation. All defendants are guaranteed court trials.

In the United States, a piece of law is seen as a violation of the separation of powers established by the Constitution. When passing a piece of law, the legislative branch assumes powers that belong only to the judicial branch by pronouncing guilt and punishment. Achievement bills are also not permitted under the rules of Canadian parliamentary practice.

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