Bills of Attainder

Here is the problem: conservatives want to blame the world’s problems on the tiny, irrelevant ACORN whose total government windfall is a mere drop in the bucket compared to the military contractors and war profiteers — such as Halliburton, Blackwater and the rest of the gang — who have all received and mysteriously made disappear billions of taxpayer dollars without any government scrutiny or oversight whatsoever. Congress could pass a law prohibiting companies convicted of fraud from participating in future government bids, but that would negatively affect the war profiteers, all of whom have previously been convicted of fraud and continue to be on the government payroll. All the conservatives really want to do is punish ACORN alone.

So now some ingenious Republicans have proposed legislation that would exclusively punish ACORN.  This of course would be a Bill of Attainder, and Bills of Attainder are both clearly and explicitly prohibited by the Constitution (Congress legislates, the Judiciary adjudicates). The above video is from a funny exchange between Rep. Alan Grayson and Rep. Broun where Grayson educates Broun on the law. It’s nice to see how uneducated our legislators are on legislating. Either that or how little could care about the Constitution.