Attack

See Assault; Collaterally. ATTAINT)ER.2 Staining; corrupting; pollution of blood; extinguishment of inheritable quality of blood. When sentence of death is pronounced the immediate, inseparable consequence at common law is attainder: the condemned is without the protection of the law, his estates are forfeited, his blood corrupted. 3 The word is derived from attiricta; the stain or corruption of a criminal capitally condemned. The party attainted lost all inheritable quality — he could neither receive nor transmit property or other rightsof inheritance.* Bill of attainder. A legislative act which inflicts punishment without a judicial trial.*' If the punishment be less than death, the act is termed a bill of pains and penalties.^ Bills of attainder (or acts of attainder as they were called when passed into statutes) were laws which declared certain persons attainted — their blood corrupted so that it lost heritable equality.* " No Bill of Attainder.. shall be passed." » " No Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted." ' "No State shaU. pass any Bill of Attainder." ' Within the meaning of the Constitution bills of attainder include bills of pains and penalties. In these cases the legislative body, in addition to its legitimate functions, exercises the powers and offices of a judge: it assumes judicial magistracy; it pronomices upon ■ See Brandon; Drake; 1 Bouvier, 202-3. On attaching debts, see 18 Cent. Law J. 468 (1884), cases. "F.ateindre, to convict,

— Skeat. F. attaindre, to stain, accuse: L. ad-ttngere, to reach to, touch,

— Webster. L. attinctxis, stained, blackened,— 4 Bl. Com. 380; 39 N. Y. 430; 4 Wall. 387. 3 4 Bl. Com. 380-89; 2 id. 251-56. ' [Exp. Garland, 4 Wall. 387 (1866), Miller, J. 6 Cummings v. Missouri, 4 Wall. 323 (1866), Field, J. « Constitution, Art. I, sec. 9, cl. 3. the guilt of the party, without any of the forms or safeguards of trial; it determines the suf Soiency of the proofs produced, whether conformable to the rules of evidence or otherwise; and it fixes the degree of punishment in accordance with its own notions of the enormity of the offense. Such bills are generally directed against individuals by name, but they may be against a whole class; and they may inflict punishment absolutely or conditionally.! ' In England attainders of treason worked corruption of blood and perpetual forfeiture of the estate of the person attainted to the disinherison of those who would otherwise be his heirs. Thereby innocent children were made to suffer because of the offense of their ancestor. When the Constitution was framed this was felt to be a hardship — rank injustice. The provision was intended for the benefit of the children and heirs alone,— a declaration that the children should not bear the iniquity of the fathers. In this light is to be construed the Confiscation Act of 1882.2 Courts of justice were employed only to register the edict of Parliament and to carry the sentence into execution. 8 In England bills of this sort have been usually passed in times of rebellion, of gross subserviency to the crown, or of violent political excitements.* Shortly after the Eevolution, acts of attainder were passed in several of the States. In England, by 33 and 34 Vict. (1870), attainder upon conviction is abolished. See Test, Oath,