Amendment VIII

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

Comments by Nate Segal

The Eighth Amendment further limits the power of the Judiciary:

• Bail must be reasonable,
• Fines must be reasonable, and
• Cruel and unusual punishments are proscribed.

The Amendment does not tell us what is reasonable or what is meant by cruel and unusual, though.

This amendment concerns due process of law like the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments. According to Ginsburg, et al. (2009), "The purpose of due process is to equalize the playing field between the accused individual and the all-powerful state" ( p. 154).

It seems to me that this Amendment prevents the federal government from becoming all-powerful first of all. Also, I'm not comfortable with using an analogy of a playing field. The government is not one team pitted against another, here the accused individual. Due process of law is predictable and objective. The accused individual acquires a defense lawyer who can explain and predict the general processes that this individual will experience.

I would say that the playing team analogy is faulty for another reason. The Framers of the Constitution did not intend for the government to be an adversary of its citizens. That is tyranny, and that describes King George's relationship with the Colonies and their citizens.