Talk:Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008/Division A/Title IV

This portion of the Bill appears to be in direct conflict with The US Constitution, in Article 1, Section 9, Paragraph 3, which stated, "No Bill Of Attainder or Ex-post Facto Law, shall be passed."

"A Bill Of Attainder" is a law, or legal device used to outlaw people, suspend their civil rights, confiscate their property, or put them to death, or punish them without a trial.

Cummings v. Missouri (1867). It states, "A bill of attainder, is a legislative act which inflicts punishment without judicial trial and includes any legislative act which takes away the life, liberty or property of a particular named or easily ascertainable person or group of persons because the legislature thinks them guilty of conduct which deserves punishment."

outlawing, suspension of civil rights, confiscation of property, and punishment without a trial, are the primary elements of bills of attainder.

Cases like, U.S. v Brown, U.S. v Lovett, and Nixon v. U.S., all state the government does not have the right to confiscate property.

The Bill should have allowed grandfathering of all appraisers on the rolls at the time the law was promulgated. The fact that the have a choice to grandfaher or not brings the bill into conflict with Article 1 sections 9 and 10 of the US Constitution.