The AIG Bonus Tax is a Bill of Attainder
Does the House of Representatives ever bother to read the Constitution?
Article 1, Section 9, Clause 3...
No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
And how do the federal courts interpret this clause?
Legislative acts, no matter what their form, that apply either to named individuals or to easily ascertainable members of a group in such a way as to inflict punishment on them without a trial, are 'bills of attainder' prohibited under this clause.
And in Cummings v. Missouri...
A bill of attainder, is a legislative act which inflicts punishment without judicial trial and includes any legislative act which takes away the life, liberty or property of a particular named or easily ascertainable person or group of persons because the legislature thinks them guilty of conduct which deserves punishment.
The stupid AIG bonus tax will probably never make it out of the Senate, but if it ever saw the light of day, the federal courts would nullify it in a New York minute.
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