XX. Other Prohibited Laws
No Bill Of Attainder Or Ex Post Facto Law May Be Passed By Congress
This morning I have something else for you which you probably do not understand, something that you can hardly imagine would interest you personally; but as I have often repeated, always bear in mind that every single clause of the Constitution is made for each and every one of us, no matter what position we may have in life.
The framers of the Constitution said:
“No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.”[86]
What does “attainder” mean? It means the extinction of civil rights and capacities and powers, which under the law in the olden times took place whenever a person was convicted of treason, or of a crime for which the death sentence was imposed. It means that all the estate of the convicted person, all his land, money, or other property, was forfeited to the government; so that upon his death nothing passed by inheritance to his heirs. As it was expressed, his blood was “corrupted”. He could not sue in a court of justice. He was helpless to defend any right of himself or his family.
By “bills of attainder”, which were legislative acts imposing that penalty on the accused without giving him any hearing in a court, many persons were deprived of their rights and their possessions in the centuries which have gone by, in order that such rights and such possessions might go to some favorite of the government. Of course no one would have much sympathy for a person who might be actually guilty of treason, or guilty of a great crime which involved a death penalty; but in the olden days innocent men were [pg 151] often charged with treason and punished. Conspiracies were formed to get rid of certain individuals who might be an obstacle to the achievement of base ambitions.
The abuses arising out of the imposition of attainder became so grave that in the time of Queen Victoria a statute was passed in England abolishing the extreme penalties which followed it.
In some of the colonies in this country, before the Constitution was adopted, acts of attainder were passed and enforced; but when the Constitution was finally adopted, bills of attainder were forever barred.
Don't you see the spirit of charity which is manifest in this, just as in the entire Constitution, charity even for wrongdoers, charity for the weaknesses of men? Wrongdoers of course must be punished, yet the Constitution wipes out harsh and brutal methods which were common in the days before America came into being.