What is "bills of attainder"

Usage examples of "bills of attainder".

Forfeitures imposed by the English Crown led our nation's founders to prohibit bills of attainder (forfeiture consequent to conviction) in the first article of the American Constitution.

Willie had watched this strange business for a while and had indignantly concluded that it was an outrage against civil liberties, and constitutional rights, and habeas corpus, and eminent domain, and bills of attainder, and every other half-remembered phrase which meant that an American was entitled to a fair shake.

The Jefferson who denounced bills of attainder and outlawry when he prepared a draft for the Virginia constitution in 1783, five years earlier had declared it lawful for any person to pursue and slay one Josiah Philips, on a mere supposition of guilt.