Planned Parenthood has been the
major topic in Congress for multiple weeks. However, can the Congressional defunding
of Planned Parenthood even be legally accomplished? Many discuss the issues
with the controversy over Planned Parenthood, but has anyone discussed the constitutionality of the matter? It seems that if the defunding were to pass, an
unconstitutional bill of attainder would be present. The Supreme Court has
defined a bill of attainder as a law that legislatively determines guilt and
inflicts punishment upon an individual without the protections of a judicial
trial. Essentially it is a “trial by legislature rather than a trial by court
(Cohen).” Three legal requirements must be met to declare a bill of attainder
which consists of a) the legislative act must specify the affected person b)
there must be declared guilt and a punishment to follow and c) there is a lack
of a judicial trial.
It appears that all three
requirements are being met in the instance of Planned Parenthood. The law
targets an individual (criteria a), as it solely defunds Planned Parenthood. (This
brings up the question of whether or not an organization or corporation can be considered
as an individual entity). This removing of federal funding to an organization
that provides screening, counseling, information, etc. is a clear punishment
(meeting criteria b). Funding is threatened to be removed based on the fabricated
Republican idea that Planned Parenthood sells aborted fetal body parts. Even if
this were true, it does not make sense to take away money from other parts of
the organization that have nothing to do with the alleged crimes. Federal money
already cannot go towards abortion; therefore funds would be taken away from
other helpful medical services. This is an apparent punishment to an
organization that serves to help thousands. And finally, the punishment would
most certainly be inflicted without any judicial trial as there has been no
court that has found that Planned Parenthood has violated the law. Even if Planned
Parenthood were to have violated a federal law, then the proper way to respond according
to the Constitution would be to hold a hearing in which the organization could
present its case. There was a a show trial for Planned Parenthood, however that only means that, by definition, there was a "judicial trial held in public with the intention of influencing public opinion, rather than ensuring justice."
The Constitution prohibits a
bill of attainder because it takes away some of the civil liberties that are at
the heart of our democracy. In addition, it violates the separation of powers
and the checks and balances that come with it; the judiciary is responsible for
trying, convicting, and punishing individuals while the legislature is
responsible for broader policy making. The bill of attainder provision was
created to prevent Congress from stepping over the Court, and as Congress
members continue to fight with one another and with employees of Planned
Parenthood it seems more and more that they are trying to be the Court as well
as have their congressional duties. The defunding of Planned Parenthood
originally started out as a budgetary matter for Congress to handle, but as
soon as issues arose regarding the fabricated videos, I believe it turned into
a case for the judicial system to immediately handle before any further questioning/ decision making.
It seems to me that recently Congress
has been much more interested in the making of legislation rather than paying
close attention to the key principles of our country. Which is more important-
the end result of the policy making process, or the fact that the policy being
made closely follows the ideas of our Founding Fathers? While this post
includes a very simplified analysis of the issues with Planned Parenthood, it
aims to address the possible Constitutional restrictions that are being
sidestepped as politicians and the public alike search for an end to the
debate. It is unclear what the ultimate conclusion will be in the Planned
Parenthood debate, but Congress needs to be careful when it comes to violating
the Constitution.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/senate-planned-parenthood_55b7bd0be4b0224d883412f4
http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2015/09/planned-parenthood-defunding-as-unconstitutional.html
http://www.thenation.com/article/planned-parenthood-show-trial/
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