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1 1 (January 22, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/goveblt0001 and id is 1 raw text is: S Congressional ______ **Research Service Capitol Unrest, Legislative Response, and the Bill of Attainder Clause January 22, 2021 On January 6, 2021, a crowd gathered on the U.S. Capitol grounds, breached police barriers, entered and occupied portions of the Capitol building, and clashed with law enforcement. The incident resulted in at least five deaths, dozens of injuries, and damage to federal property. Members of Congress and the Vice President, who were counting electoral votes for the 2020 presidential election, were forced to evacuate in response to the unrest. Following the incident, some Members of Congress and other commentators have called for accountability for the individuals directly involved in the incident, as well as for others, potentially including elected officials, who may have incited or supported the unrest. Many of those calls for accountability raise complex legal issues. As a recent CRS Legal Sidebar explains, the incident may implicate numerous provisions of existing criminal law. In addition, on January 13, 2021, the House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump for incitement of insurrection based on the events of January 6. Lawmakers and commentators have also explored imposing liability under other legal authorities, including by passing new legislation or seeking to bar certain individuals from holding office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. This Legal Sidebar addresses one of the more novel issues that these proposals may raise. The Bill of Attainder Clause prohibits Congress from enacting legislation that inflicts punishment on an individual basis without ajudicial trial. This Sidebar provides an overview of the Bill of Attainder Clause and presents certain related legal considerations for Congress as the legislature responds to the Capitol unrest. The Bill of Attainder Clause Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution provides that Congress shall pass No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law. Article I, Section 10, likewise prohibits the states from enacting bills of attainder. (Thus, there are two Bill of Attainder Clauses; this Sidebar uses the singular Bill of Attainder Clause to refer to the clause that binds Congress.) The Supreme Court has described a bill of attainder as a law that legislatively determines guilt and inflicts punishment upon an identifiable individual without provision of the protections of a judicial trial. Bills of attainder were common in England before the Founding, primarily targeting individuals accused of disloyalty to the government. Bills of attainder were also used in the American colonies. However, the Framers of the U.S. Constitution chose to depart from that historical practice. The Supreme Court has explained that the constitutional prohibitions on bills of Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10567 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Membersand Committeesof Congress

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