Eighth Amendment to the United
States Constitution
United States of America
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Pertinent part of the English Bill of Rights,
December 1689.
The Eighth Amendment
(Amendment
VIII) to the United States Constitution is the
part of the United States Bill of Rights which
prohibits the federal government from impos-
ing excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel
and unusual punishments. The phrases em-
ployed are taken from the English Bill of
Rights of 1689. In Robinson v. California, 370
U.S. 660 (1962), the Supreme Court of the
United States ruled the Cruel and Unusual
Punishments Clause to be applicable to the
The American Bill of Rights in the National
Archives, March 1789
states via the Fourteenth Amendment. The
Court has not explicitly ruled on whether the
Excessive Bail or Excessive Fines Clauses ap-
ply to the states.
Text
“ Excessive bail shall not be required,
nor excessive fines imposed, nor
cruel and unusual punishments
inflicted.
”
Background
This amendment was ratified as part of the
U.S. Constitution in 1791. It is almost identic-
al to a provision in the English Bill of Rights
of 1689, in which Parliament declared, "as
their ancestors in like case have usually
done...that excessive bail ought not to be re-
quired, nor excessive fines imposed, nor
cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”[1]
The provision was largely inspired by the
punishment in England of Titus Oates, who
was a fixture on the London pillory circuit
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Eighth Amendment to the United States
Constitution
1
during the reign of King James II in the
1680s.[2] Oates has also become a fixture of
the U.S. Sup