this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
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It's been tried before, and abandoned because it's generally a bad idea. What you're describing is a bill of attainder, a law passed specifically to punish an individual or group.
All crimes punish the group of people doing that crime. A bill of attainder targets an individual or a related group of individuals (like family members). But legislation to criminalize an action that happens to be done by only a small number of individuals is not a bill of attainder.
Such as. ... a tariff aimed at one specific country?
Not sure exactly, but international trade law is weird, and generally bills of attainder are targeted at one or more individuals rather than classes of individuals. If a law defines a class, like "anyone selling goods from China" then I don't think it qualifies as a bill of attainder. I did find this article on Lawfare from 2019 where Huawei challenged parts of the NDAA because it specifically forbade the executive branch from buying Huawei gear. The courts ultimately did not agree with Huawei.
wouldn't a law against murder also be punishing a specific individual or group?
No, but making it illegal to be named Garrett Langley and CEO of Flock would be
that makes sense. but I can still legislate which actions he and everyone else is capable of legally doing... e.g. collecting data to surveil members of the public.
If a law punished a specific murderer or group of murderers it would be, but not if it punished an entire defined class of murderers equally. Lawmakers generally describe the qualifications of a crime (e.g. "anyone who knowingly and willfully causes the death of another person") and prescribe a punishment for anyone convicted of it, and then the courts determine whether or not individuals are guilty by whether they meet the qualifications laid out in the law. Bills of attainder are laws that define individuals or specific groups as guilty by identity, not qualification, which means they don't get a trial and the judiciary doesn't get to act as a check on the legislature.
I guess that is my confusion.
why would "legislation to be passed that criminalized the usage of personal data for surveillance" fall under this attainer scenario? seems very similar to "legislation passed that criminalized murder"..
I don't think it would. Congress could criminalize the behavior of corporate surveillance, then prosecutors could charge any individual or company that engages in that behavior. It'd only be a bill of attainder if it was selective by identity (e.g. a bill that proclaims "the CEO of Flock is guilty of criminal surveillance and should be arrested") rather than a defined criminal standard that applies to everyone.
understood. thank you for your patience.
np! It was good to refresh myself on the topic as well :)