Eighth Amendment To The United States Constitution

Eighth Amendment To The United States Constitution

The Eighth Amendment (Amendment VIII) to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights prohibiting the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that this amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause applies to the states. The phrases employed originated in the English Bill of Rights of 1689.

Read more about Eighth Amendment To The United States Constitution:  Background, Cruel and Unusual Punishments, Evolving Standards of Decency, Excessive Fines, Excessive Bail

Famous quotes containing the words eighth, amendment, united, states and/or constitution:

    The eighth day of Christmas,
    My true love sent to me
    Eight maids a-milking,
    —Unknown. The Twelve Days of Christmas (l. 43–45)

    ... when we shall have our amendment to the Constitution of the United States, everyone will think it was always so, just exactly as many young people believe that all the privileges, all the freedom, all the enjoyments which woman now possesses were always hers. They have no idea of how every single inch of ground that she stands upon to-day has been gained by the hard work of some little handful of women of the past.
    Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)

    Europe and the U.K. are yesterday’s world. Tomorrow is in the United States.
    R.W. “Tiny” Rowland (b. 1917)

    It may be said that the elegant Swann’s simplicity was but another, more refined form of vanity and that, like other Israelites, my parents’ old friend could present, one by one, the succession of states through which had passed his race, from the most naive snobbishness to the worst coarseness to the finest politeness.
    Marcel Proust (1871–1922)

    Without the Constitution and the Union, we could not have attained the result; but even these, are not the primary cause of our great prosperity. There is something back of these, entwining itself more closely about the human heart. That something, is the principle of “Liberty to all”Mthe principle that clears the path for all—gives hope to all—and, by consequence, enterprize [sic], and industry to all.
    Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)