ffences, such as treason and felony,
without any conviction in the ordinary course of judicial proceedings."
An act which inflicted a milder degree of punishment was called a bill
of pains and penalties.[1465] Within the meaning of the Constitution,
however, bills of attainder include bills of pains and penalties.[1466]
As interpreted by the Supreme Court, this clause prohibits all
legislative acts, "no matter what their form, that apply either to named
individuals or to easily ascertainable members of a group in such a way
as to inflict punishment on them without a judicial trial * * *"[1467]
Two acts of Congress--one which required attorneys practicing in the
federal courts to take an oath that they had never given aid to persons
engaged in hostility to the United States,[1468] and another which
prohibited the payment of compensation to certain named government
employees who have been charged with subversive activity,[1469]--have
been held unconstitutional on the ground that they amounted to bills of
attainder.

EX POST FACTO LAWS

Definition

At the time the Constitution was adopted, many persons understood the
terms _ex post facto_ laws, to "embrace all retrospective laws, or laws
governing or controlling past transactions, whether * * * of a civil or
a criminal nature."[1470] But in the early case of Calder _v._
Bull,[1471] the Supreme Court decided that the phrase, as used in the
Constitution, applies only to penal and criminal statutes. But although
it is inapplicable to retroactive legislation of any other kind,[1472]
the constitutional prohibition may not be evaded by giving a civil form
to a measure which is essentially criminal.[1473] Every law which makes
criminal an act which was innocent when done, or which inflicts a
greater punishment than the law annexed to the crime when committed, is
an _ex post facto_ law within the prohibition of the Constitution.[1474]
A prosecution under a temporary statute which was extended before the
date originally set for its expiration does not offend this provision
even though it is instituted subsequent to the extension of the
statute's duration for a violation committed prior thereto.[1475] Since
this provision has no application to crimes committed outside the
jurisdiction of the United States against the laws of a foreign country,
it is immaterial in extradition proceedings whether the foreign law is
_ex post facto_ or not.[1476]

What Constitutes Punishment