Constitutional Limitations on the Power of Congress to Enact Penal Laws

Question 1

Enumerate (in general terms) the constitutional limitations on the power of Congress to enact penal laws

Answer 1

1. No Ex Post Facto Law of Bill of Attainder
2. Equal Protection
3. Due Process
4. Cruel or Inhuman Punishment

Question 2

What is an ex post facto law?

Answer 2

• makes criminal an act done before passage of law
• aggravates crime than when it was committed
• inflicts greater punishment than the law annexed to the crime when committed
• alters legal rules of evidence, authorizes conviction upon less of different testimony than the law required at the time of the comission of the offense
• assumes to regulate civil rights and remedies only, in effect imposes penalty or deprivation of a right for something which when done was lawful
• deprives a person accused of a crime some lawful protectionof a former conviction of acquittal, or proclamation of amnesty

Question 3

What is a bill of attainder?

Answer 3

A bill of attainder is a legislative act which inflicts punishment without trial. Its essence is the substitution of a legislative act for a judicial determination of guilt. [People v. Ferrer, G.R. No. L32613-14 (1972)]