House Republicans split: Truth vs. Myth Part 2
An excellent article on the punitive AIG tax.
From the article:
“Never mind, too, that such punitive laws were expressly deplored by America’s Founders. In Federalist 44, James Madison warned that “Bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, and laws impairing the obligation of contracts, are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound legislation.”
In 1827 in Ogden v. Saunders, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a similar warning about legislative limits under Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution: “The states are forbidden to pass any bill of attainder or ex post facto law, by which a man shall be punished criminally or penally by loss of life of his liberty, property, or reputation for an act which, at the time of its commission, violated no existing law of the land,” wrote Justice Bushrod Washington.”
While this bill may not strictly fall under a bill of attainder category as far as courts are concerned, the intent behind crafting the law was very clear when it was voted on despite current repudiations that it was not meant to be just for AIG employees.
Now… if those AIG employess had donated that money, say… to the DNC?