Ex post facto is the easier one to recall: "ex post" (after), meaning that an act was legal when it was committed but then is made illegal by the law passed afterward.
Bills of attainder are a little more complicated. First, a bill of attainder is an act of a Legislature, not a Court. Second, the bill of attainder circumvents all civil rights, including the right to a trial, against self incrimination, and so forth. Third, it permits seizure of property without due process. Fourth, because it is a legislative act, there is no appeal process.
Of course, my current interest in this topic arises from my investigations about the treatment of Loyalists during the American Revolution. But, once again, the past and the present collide.
Interestingly, Thomas Jefferson, in one more display of hypocrisy, is on record as favoring the use of a bill of attainder in Virginia. Alexander Hamilton, on the other hand, argued vigorously against them.
During the American Revolution, the New York State Constitution permitted bills of attainder, and they were used to label individuals guilty of treason and to seize their property. Some of my ancestors lost their property through such actions. New York was not the only state to do this.
Why should this matter now? After all, the Constitutional prohibition has been in place since its initial adoption.
The short answer is that Constitutional protections are absolute in theory, but often not in practical terms. Japanese Americans were attainted -- deprived of civil liberties and property -- during World War II, in spite of a Constitution that was written to protect them. And the bill of attainder was only a fraction of the violations of civil liberties that those citizens endured.
The other answer is that we -- as a people and our elected reprsentatives -- do not learn or remember these lessons well. Since 9/11/2001, we have been on a slipperty slope concerning when civil liberties may be nullified in the interests of national security. We have seen that, in times of crisis, the passions of the majority lose perspective (just think of the Patriot Act) and the Constitution is trampled.
Let us, therefore, remember and heed Alexander Hamilton:
"Nothing is more common than for a free people, in times of heat and violence, to gratify momentary passions, by letting into the government, principles and precedents which afterwards prove fatal to themselves."
Sources:
http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/Spring02/attainder.cfm
http://online.sfsu.edu/jaintern/rightsviolated.html
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