A bill of attainder is a special legislative act by
which a person may be condemned to death, or to outlawry and banishment,
without the opportunity of defending himself which he would have in a
court of law. "No evidence is necessarily adduced to support it," [26] and
in former times, especially in the reign of Henry VIII., it was a
formidable engine for perpetrating judicial murders. Bills of attainder
long ago ceased to be employed in England, and the process was abolished
by statute in 1870.
[Footnote 26: Taswell-Langmead, _English Constitutional History_,
p. 385.]
[Sidenote: Intercitizenship.]
No title of nobility can be granted by the United States, and no federal
officer can accept a present, office, or title from a foreign state
without the consent of Congress. "No religious test shall ever be
required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the
United States." Full faith and credit must be given in each state to the
public acts and records, and to the judicial proceedings of every other
state; and it is left for Congress to determine the manner in which such
acts and proceedings shall be proved or certified.
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