The Supreme Court's Excessive Deference to Legislative Bodies under Eighth Amendment Sentencing Review

Judicial Regulation of Excessive Punishments through the Eighth Amendment

Desert and the Eighth Amendment Symposium: Cruel and Unusual Punishment: Litigating under the Eighth Amendment

In Search of a Theory of Deference: The Eighth Amendment, Democratic Pedigree, and Constitutional Decision Making

The Supreme Court's recent Eighth Amendment death penalty case law is in disarray, and the confusion is symptomatic of a larger problem in constitutional doctrine. In Baze v. Rees and Kennedy v. Louisiana, the Court approached the challenged state policies with vastly different levels of deference. Though the Court purported to apply longstanding Eighth Amendment tests in both cases, Baze was h...

The Political Morality of the Eighth Amendment

Since the early twentieth century, the Supreme Court has interpreted the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment as a progressive mandate that draws its meaning from “the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.” In applying this standard, the Court looks to such objective considerations as legislative enactments, patterns of jury dec...

The Evolution of State Supreme Courts