The U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment: Bail, Fines, and Punishments is an in-depth exploration of the Eighth Amendment’s pivotal role in American jurisprudence. This comprehensive casebook is the very first of its kind, dedicated entirely to the Eighth Amendment, with every relevant Supreme Court precedent included to 2025.
The book delves into the intricacies of bail, fines, and punishments litigation, featuring key excerpts from landmark Supreme Court cases that have defined the Amendment over the past 200 years. This work examines the historical context and evolving interpretations of the Amendment, starting with its origin in English Law and highlighting the impact of Supreme Court jurisprudence on the wider justice system. Through expert analysis of major cases, the book reveals how the Eighth Amendment shapes debates on relevant issues, providing unique insights into cases and addressing contemporary issues like racial bias in sentencing, the vanishing applicability of the death penalty, the importance of age in sentencing and punishment, and solitary confinement.
Ideal for legal scholars, practitioners, and anyone interested in constitutional law, this is a vital resource for understanding one of the Constitution’s most essential protections.
Introduction
Chapter 1. Framing and early history
The Eighth Amendment’s English and common law roots
Punishments context
The Eighth Amendment in the early United States
The Eighth lands on the Supreme Court’s docket
Chapter 2. Interpretation and incorporation
Constitutional history and the backdrop of incorporation
The era of incorporation
Interpreting the Eighth Amendment
The beginning of a departure from evolutive decision-making?
Chapter 3. Excessive Bail
Incorporation of the Bail Clause
Bail before the Court
Chapter 4. Fines
History of the Fines Clause
1980s and 1990s review
Due process claims
Incorporating the Fines Clause
Chapter 5. The death penalty, from Furman to Gregg and beyond
Furman reaches the Court
The machinery of death, rebooted
Gregg’s legacy
Chapter 6. Limits on capital categories: classes of offence
Non-homicidal rape
Felony murder
Non-homicidal child rape
Chapter 7. Limits on capital offenders
Youth in capital sentencing
Intellectually disabled offenders
Chapter 8. Execution protocols
Early death penalty methods
The lethal injection
21st Century innovation
Chapter 9. Equal application and racial bias
Chapter 10. Non-capital proscriptions
Life imprisonment and proportionality
Revisiting proportionality
Juveniles and non-capital proportionality
Chapter 11. Confinement conditions and inmate rights
Extending punishments adjudication to prison health and safety
Confinement conditions at the turn of the century: caveating the limitations
Mass incarceration on trial
Unconstitutional solitude?
Conclusion
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