[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 21980-21981]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       WRONGFUL BILL OF ATTAINDER

  (Mr. NADLER of New York asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. NADLER of New York. A little while ago, the House passed an 
amendment to the bill that we were considering that says no contract 
for Federal funds may ever go to ACORN, a named organization, or to any 
individual organization affiliated with ACORN.
  Unfortunately, this was done on the spur of the moment and nobody had 
the opportunity to point out that this is a flat violation of the 
Constitution, constituting a bill of attainder. The Constitution says 
Congress shall pass no bill of attainder.
  The Supreme Court has ruled a bill of attainder is a legislative act 
that, no matter what their form, applies either to named individuals or 
to easily ascertainable members of a group in such a way as to inflict 
punishment, and then without a judicial trial. That's exactly what this 
amendment does.
  It may be that ACORN is guilty of various infractions, and if so, it 
ought to be investigated, maybe sanctioned, whatever, by the 
appropriate administrative agency or maybe by the judiciary. Congress 
must not be in the business of punishing individual organizations or 
people without trial.

[[Page 21981]]

  That's what this amendment did. It is flatly prohibited by the 
Constitution. And once confidence in this institution is sapped, when 
we ignore the Constitution, we ignore constitutional principles, that 
whatever one may think of the subject matter or the organization here, 
the Constitution and the ban on bills of attainder is there for the 
protection of the liberties of all of us.
  It's unfortunate that we passed this, and I certainly hope it is 
removed in the conference committee.

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