Opinion ID: 2000808
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Bill of Attainder Argument.

Text: Next, defendant contends that application of the statute prohibiting possession of a firearm by a felon, as applied to him, constitutes a bill of attainder prohibited by Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution and article I, section 21 of the Iowa Constitution. He asserts that it is the aim of section 724.26 to punish a designated group of persons, i.e., convicted felons, by denying them the right to possess a firearm. A bill of attainder is a legislative determination that metes out punishment to a particular individual or a designated group of persons without a judicial trial. United States v. Lovett, 328 U.S. 303, 315, 66 S.Ct. 1073, 1078, 90 L.Ed. 1252, 1259 (1946). The danger of such a law is that it deprives the accused of the protection afforded by judicial process. United States v. Van Horn, 798 F.2d 1166, 1168 (8th Cir.1986). The defendant's conviction in the present case was not punishment imposed without judicial process. He was given a jury trial. Moreover, he is not being punished for his membership in a particular group, but rather for his violation of a regulation validly imposed upon that group through the legislative process. The issue as it relates to statutes barring possession of firearms by felons was determined adversely to defendant's contention in United States v. Donofrio, 450 F.2d 1054 (5th Cir.1971). There, the court declared: Appellant misconceives the [thrust of the bill of attainder prohibition]. Laws regulating the conduct of convicted felons have long been upheld as valid exercises of the legislative function. The prohibitions of [the bill of attainder clause] relate only to penal laws which are described as those laws which inflict a disability for the purpose of punishment. If the disability is designed to accomplish some other legitimate governmental purpose it should stand.... Such an activity is presented in the instant case, the regulation of guns in the hands of those previously convicted of felonies. Donofrio, 450 F.2d at 1055-56. We agree with the conclusions of the federal court that statutory prohibitions of the type at issue here do not constitute a prohibited bill of attainder.