Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution deals with the powers of the Supreme Court. Subsection 3 of this Section reads as follows:
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treasan shall work Corruption of the Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Persona attained.
What in the hell does this mean (other than the part about declaring the punishment, that part I understand)?
I believe it means that no penalty can be applied to a traitor’s family (unless, of course, they were co-conspirators). It used to the be practice to execute or imprison all members of a traitor’s family.
“Attainder: At common law, the act of extinguishing a person’s civil rights when sentenced to death or declared an outlaw for committing a felony or treason.”
“Corruption of blood: A defunct doctrine…under which a person loses the ability to inherit or pass property as a result of an attainder…”
So basically it’s saying that your treason doesn’t wipe out your family’s rights to inherit property through you.
Corruption of Blood was an English punishment for treason. It basically said that a person loses the ability to inherit or pass on property to his children by inheritance. Charges of treason were a very common political tool back in the day; the Constituional Congress wanted to make certain those abuses didn’t happen in our new egalitarian society by specifically creating and defining the crime in the Constitution (the only crime to receive this treatment) and by limiting the punishment for it to an individual within his lifetime.
Yep, an act of attainder was fairly common back in the days of Henry VII and Henry VIII and their ilk. The king accuses someone (usually a noble with lots of property) of treason, Parliament finds him guilty, and the King gets all his property. If, in addition, they charge him with “corruption of blood”, then the family doesn’t inherit the entailed property, titles, etc.
BTW, the “corruption of blood” charge was often reversed later, if the remaining family proved themselves loyal.
C K Dexter Haven brings up another common English practice we wanted to avoid: bills of attainder, where a legislature punishes someone by legislative act without benefit of a trial. Bills of Attainder are also constitutionally impermissable.