Bill of Attainder and Ex Post Facto Law

How the government is violating the only two liberties spelled out in the original Constitution.

Article 1, Section 9, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution contains a curious statement:

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

In addition, Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 states:

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. (Emphasis mine.)

Why are these two clauses in the Constitution?

The “Bill of Attainder” is an English criminal law last used in 1870, that allows a person or group of people to be declared guilty of a crime and convicted without a legal trial by the Parliament, (legislature).

The Framers considered freedom from bills of attainder and ex post facto laws so important that these are the only two individual liberties that the original Constitution protects from both federal and state intrusion.

Our government consists of three branches, Legislative, Executive and Judicial. The first Supreme Court Chief Justice was John Marshall.

Marshall and his successors saw the Bill of Attainder Clause as an element of the separation of powers. As the decisions of the Court in Mar-bury v. Madison (1803) and United States v. Klein (1871) made clear, only a court can hold a trial, evaluate the evidence, and determine the merits of the claim or accusation. The Constitution for-bade Congress from “exercis[ing] the power and office of judge.”

The Jan. 6 Committee with “no authority to pursue criminal charges” is being run by a former U.S. attorney. The top investigator is also a former U.S. attorney, and more than a dozen other former federal prosecutors.

Those are ex-Article 2 gumshoes wielding Article 2 powers for an Article 1 committee. They have browbeaten more than, the Times reports, 475 witnesses and issued more than 100 subpoenas, “including broad ones to banks as well as telecommunications and social media companies.” They’ve “swept up the personal data of Trump family members and allies, local politicians and at least one member of Congress.”

(Since the writing of this New York Sun editorial, the witness list has grown to 1,000 with many behind closed doors. The more than 100 subpoenas outrageously include five sitting Republican Congressman and the Secret Service.)

How corrupt and unconstitutional is the Jan. 6 Committee?

Steve Bannon claimed executive privilege. When he decided to testify, but only in an open hearing, the Justice Department pounced and charged him with contempt of Congress. He was tried and convicted by a Washington DC jury.

When Jeffrey Clark stated that he would appear, but when appropriate he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, the Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, stated that anyone who would invoke that right would be presumed to be guilty. Of course, that is contrary to the Constitution and law in every jurisdiction, but that doesn’t matter. The Democrats, together with Cheney and Kinzinger, are intending to hold Clark in contempt.

The Committee did hold Jeffrey Clark in contempt of Congress.

Former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows initially claimed executive privilege. He then agreed to provide 9,000 pages of documents to the Committee. While in the process of negotiating in good faith on when to appear to discuss those documents, without notice, the Committee subpoenaed Meadows’s personal phone records, resulting in Meadows’s breaking off negotiations and filing a lawsuit against Thompson, Cheney and the rest of the Committee. 

The result? Meadows was found in contempt of Congress.

If the Jan. 6 Committee was actually investigating, they would be asking Pelosi why the Capital was so unprepared when EVERYONE knew something was happening on Jan. 6. The lie that Trump wouldn't authorize National Guard? He in fact DID two days prior, which was refused by Pelosi and the Mayor of Washington DC. Here is Mayor Bowsers' refusal:

Pelosi's refusal is very suspicious, since the Capital Police were warned in Dec. 2020 about possible violence on Jan. 6.

More insidious is that Capital police were warned from Baltimore BLM AND Antifa were bussing in rioters that were going to be disguised as Trump supporters on Jan. 6.

(Kind of puts a WHOLE different flavor on who was actually rioting at the Capital!) Of course, the Jan. 6 Committee is interested in NONE of this, since it's all about removing Donald Trump from politics, any illegal or underhanded way they can!

According to House rules, the Jan. 6 Committee was not even properly formed.

Pelosi refused to seat GOP members nominated by the minority party, and instead picked avowed enemies of President Trump, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.

Pelosi and her staff members are deliberately withholding details from members of the GOP.

House rules require monthly reports on progress which include statements of expenses, reports of travel, committee employees, titles and salaries, and a certification that the report is available to members of the committee for examination.

Regarding “Ex Post Facto Law”:

Ex post facto is most typically used to refer to a criminal statute that punishes actions retroactively, thereby criminalizing conduct that was legal when originally performed.

Laws that constrain in some way the God Given Right to defend yourself reiterated in the 2nd Amendment, are probably the most egregious examples of this constitutional violation. The first law passed regulating the possession of firearms was the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA), which puts a tax on the making and transfer of automatic-fire guns, shotguns and rifles. Which raises the question of the Constitutionality of licensing a right. (So automatic weapons are NOT illegal Joe Biden, just expensive!) Ever oppressive so-called gun laws are being passed in states and localities to restrict a Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Magazine sizes reduced to ten rounds. Certain types of weapons having restrictions or being outlawed all together.

On April 7, 2018, Deerfield, Illinois legal gun owners actually became criminals with a new ordinance that not only banned “assault rifles” and “high-capacity magazines”, but also incredibly, semiautomatic rifles, semiautomatic shotguns and semiautomatic pistols with detachable magazines. Residents were given 60 days to sell their weapons, transfer ownership to someone outside the town, turn in their weapons and accessories to police or pay the fines.

Following a series of legal battles, on Nov. 1, 2021, the Illinois State Supreme Court by a vote of 3 -3 with one judge recusing, kept a lower court ruling in place and the epitome of an Ex Post Facto Law remains!

After a resounding defeat in the Supreme Court over putting conditions on gun ownership, New York brazenly puts a three-year social media history as a condition for gun ownership!

At a national level, let's not forget the “Assault Weapons Ban” Biden has up his sleeve banning AR15’s which for one thing is fraudulent on its face since the U.S. Army definition of an “assault rifle” is:

“A selective-fire rifle chambered for a cartridge of intermediate power. If applied to any semi-automatic firearm regardless of its cosmetic similarity to a true assault rifle, the term is incorrect.”

Biden committed this in-your-face threat on Aug. 30 in Pennsylvania to right-leaning legal gun owning Americans:

This is not the first time Biden threatened law abiding Americans. On June 24, 2021, the threat included nuclear weapons.

Biden appears to be underestimating his imagined enemies thinking Americans need F-15’s to fight the government when according to the Jan. 6 Committee and other sources, the people at the Capital on Jan. 6 along with the guy with horns on his head came within a gnat's eyelash of overthrowing the government without any weapons!

More disturbingly, Biden is continuing to ratchet up his retoric! On Sept. 1, 2022, in Philadelphia:

Biden accuses his political opponents of being “Enemies of Democracy”, in the most divisive speech ever for a U.S. President.

He appears to be begging Republicans to get violent!

The Jan. 6 Committee is a maniacal attempt to destroy Donald Trump. With all data pointing to a Republican rout in the 2022 midterm, are these people actually demented enough to use their Goebbels styled narrative as a ruse to call off the election? God help us!

Knowing full well that the Democratic Party actively endorsed the violence committed by Antifa and Black Lives Matter extremists in 2020, the Biden administration now wants you to believe that the Republican Party supports violence, that Republican voters are likely to commit more violence, and that the only way to save democracy is to vote for Democrats in the mid-terms.

This gaslighting is going on through the whole administration, with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre labeling five elected Republican legislators “extreme”. Actually, being brazen enough to say those who disagree with “the majority of Americans” are “extremists”!

First, who is this alleged majority? Second, the RIGHT to speak freely and disagree is in the 1st Amendment!

This is the same Karine Jean-Pierre who is on record saying Donald Trump did not win the 2016 Presidential election and Brian Kemp did not win as governor in Georgia!

So, Biden's official spokesperson is an “election denying extremist”.

Interesting.

For my birthday, my wife Linda bought me a t-shirt that says:

“THIS is the government our Founders warned us about! “

Biden’s threats echo a disturbing reoccurring theme from the left and complacent media:

During an appearance on CNN’s Don Lemon Tonight on Monday, CNN national security Analyst Juliette Kayyem made the Orwellian suggestion that guns in America were a “homeland security problem.” But the craziness didn’t stop there as she claimed, “responsible gun ownership” means you don’t own semi-automatic rifles and that gun manufacturers have made mass shootings “very sexy.”

So why am I telling you all this? Because these are more instances of how elected officials are thumbing their nose at you and the Constitution they are supposed to be upholding and protecting.

“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.” - G. Michael Hopf

Ladies and gentlemen, apparently, it's time to “buck up” again!