There's not even wriggle room there. It's simply not allowed, and passing it would be a waste of time, because BP's massively-expensive lawyers will certainly be able to get it overturned in the supreme court.U.S. Constitution said:No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
100% agreed. It's right there in the Constitution, and for good reason.Look, I'm all for punishing BP to the fullest extent of the law, and I think the liability cap is an outrage, but doing a retroactive change to the law iis about as directly and unambiguously against the constitution as possible.
There's not even wriggle room there. It's simply not allowed, and passing it would be a waste of time, because BP's massively-expensive lawyers will certainly be able to get it overturned in the supreme court.U.S. Constitution said:No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
---------- Post added at 05:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:32 AM ----------
A better way to handle this, I'd say, is to make the law apply to all the oil that is spilled from the point the law is passed onwards. The leak, it seems, is going to take another three months to fix -- so the vast majority of it will be on BP's hands anyway.
Trying to make it retroactive is a surefire way to have the law accomplish nothing.
He has a good point. It's the same reason tobacco companies LOVE the taxation and regulations on cigarettes. They have NO competition because of it.Ahahaha
Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma used procedural move to stop the bill from coming to the Senate floor, saying that raising the cap would hurt smaller drillers.
"Big Oil would love to have these caps up there so they can shut out all the independents," he said.
In the 2008 election cycle, Senator Inhofe’s largest campaign donors represented the oil and gas ($446,900 in donations), leadership pacs ($316,720) and electric utilities ($221,654) industries/categories.[48]
In 2010, his largest donors represented the oil and gas ($429,950) and electric utilities ($206,654).
Fuck it all.
Oh and this bill isn't aimed at BP. This is so that if a disaster like this ever happens again the government won't have to take oil companies on good faith that they'll repay the massive damages that result from oil spills.
Because the Federal Government likely can't handle the clean up themselves and BP is happy to let them foot the bill if they don't have to pay for it? This is an environmental disaster that is going to basically destroy the sea-based local economies of the Southern United States. It's going to cost us A LOT more than 75 million dollars. There needs to be more than token accountability.ok, if its not aimed at BP the why is there an attempt to make it apply retroactively?
Because the Federal Government likely can't handle the clean up themselves and BP is happy to let them foot the bill if they don't have to pay for it? This is an environmental disaster that is going to basically destroy the sea-based local economies of the Southern United States. It's going to cost us A LOT more than 75 million dollars. There needs to be more than token accountability.[/QUOTE]ok, if its not aimed at BP the why is there an attempt to make it apply retroactively?
Because the Federal Government likely can't handle the clean up themselves and BP is happy to let them foot the bill if they don't have to pay for it? This is an environmental disaster that is going to basically destroy the sea-based local economies of the Southern United States. It's going to cost us A LOT more than 75 million dollars. There needs to be more than token accountability.[/QUOTE]ok, if its not aimed at BP the why is there an attempt to make it apply retroactively?
Because the Federal Government likely can't handle the clean up themselves and BP is happy to let them foot the bill if they don't have to pay for it? This is an environmental disaster that is going to basically destroy the sea-based local economies of the Southern United States. It's going to cost us A LOT more than 75 million dollars. There needs to be more than token accountability.[/QUOTE]ok, if its not aimed at BP the why is there an attempt to make it apply retroactively?
I'm okay with BP going out of business, just not via an ex post facto law. That's a horrible precedent, and seems clearly unconstitutional.It likely is. And if it goes through BP WILL go out of business. The real question is if your okay with that, personally.
Huh, interesting. I looked it up -- old, old case (1798), but unless there's been another ruling that overturned it, I guess you're right.possibly not. SCOTUS has ruled in the past that ex post facto only applies in criminal law and not civil law (see Calder V Bull), regardless of how unambiguous the wording in the constitution may seem to you or I. This change in the cap would definitely fall within the civil law category.
So, it looks like there's some wriggle room on both sides. This bill may be interpreted as falling under the 3rd standard for ex post facto, (depending on the interpretation of the word "crime") but who knows?Justice Samuel Chase said:I will state what laws I consider ex post facto laws, within the words and the intent of the prohibition.
1st: Every law that makes an action , done before the passing of the law, and which was innocent when done, criminal; and punishes such action.
2nd. Every law that aggravates a crime, or makes it greater than it was, when committed.
3rd. Every law that changes the punishment, and inflicts a greater punishment, than the law annexed to the crime, when committed.
4th. Every law that alters the legal rules of evidence, and receives less, or different, testimony, than the law required at the time of the commission of the offence, in order to convict the offender.
Huh, interesting. I looked it up -- old, old case (1798), but unless there's been another ruling that overturned it, I guess you're right.possibly not. SCOTUS has ruled in the past that ex post facto only applies in criminal law and not civil law (see Calder V Bull), regardless of how unambiguous the wording in the constitution may seem to you or I. This change in the cap would definitely fall within the civil law category.