This one will be quick. Most Americans believe that the Constitution is the highest law in our land. Let me suggest that while this may well have been true at some point, our political leaders today do not act as though the Constitution has any authority over them. Case in point: today Congress voted overwhelmingly to tax AIG’s bonus payments to executives at a rate of 90%. An interesting wrinkle in all this is that the bonuses have already been paid. Congress’ action was in response to massive public and political outrage that AIG had abused the government bailout money by using it to enrich executives (oh by the way, the guy responsible for allowing this abuse is the ranking Democrat on the Senate banking committee and acted at President Obama’s direction).

Here’s the problem. The Constitution clearly states in Article 1, Section 9, that “No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.” What does that mean? Ex post facto is Latin for “after the fact”. This provision was included in the Constitution to prevent Congress from passing laws designed to target people they didn’t like by making laws retroactive to things that had already happened. Imagine a politician had a grudge against you. So he passes a law that says any child named “Billy Bob” (that’s your name!) should be put to death. Gulp! You’re already named Billy Bob! Off to the gallows for you my friend. Thankfully, ex post facto prevents our government from making laws to punish people for things that have already happened. This is so basic and so clearly stated in the Constitution that I think we have to conclude that our rulers simply don’t care about law and order. The Constitution is to be obeyed only when convenient. If not, just ignore it. Welcome to the new America you voted for!