As I search through the Constitution, searching to see if it gives any indication whether investigative powers belong to the executive, legislative or judicial branch, I come across this, in Article I, Section 9:
"No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."
I've skipped over this in the past, not knowing and not bothering to find out what a bill of attainder is. I google. What is a bill of attainder? I'm shocked at the answer:
"A legislative act that singles out an individual or group for punishment without a trial."
Our prisons are packed with people who have never had trials, but instead have been pressed into plea bargains. In recent decades, we have moved more-and-more to plea bargaining -- and thus stepped more-and-more away from having trials.
Our jails are packed with people not yet convicted, people who have been arrested and required to post bond, but who have not yet been convicted -- and therefore have not had trials.
So, the Constitution says bills of attainder are wrong. You can't punish someone -- and sending them to jail is certainly punishment -- without a trial.
And yet that is our common practice.
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