Opinion ID: 78194
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Unlawful Bill of Attainder

Text: The U.S. Constitution provides that [n]o Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed. U.S. Const. art. I, § 9, cl. 3. A bill of attainder is a law that legislatively determines guilt and inflicts punishment upon an identifiable individual without provision of the protections of a judicial trial. Nixon v. Adm'r of Gen. Servs., 433 U.S. 425, 468, 97 S.Ct. 2777, 2803, 53 L.Ed.2d 867 (1977). Houston argues that the Policy singles out ascertainable members of a group who alone are subject to its provisions and inflicts punishment on them without judicial action, and thus, the Policy is an unlawful bill of attainder under the U.S. and Florida Constitutions. We hold that the district court correctly determined that the Policy neither determined guilt nor inflicted punishment on Houston and was therefore not a bill of attainder. As discussed above, the Policy furthers the non-punitive goal of allocating resources, and no intent to punish can be established from the record. Because this claim has no merit, we affirm the district court's order granting summary judgment on this issue.