Not just a wordsmith, at which he had few equals, the third president of the United States was a whiz at math, philosophy, history, and the languages (he was proficient in French, Latin and Greek). And that was just as a college student at the College of William and Mary.
The Eighth Amendment (Amendment VIII) of the United States Constitution prohibits 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 also applies to the states.
In a few years, we will see.â. A picture caption in some copies on Tuesday with the continuation of an article about the Supreme Court ruling that conditions in Californiaâs overcrowded prisons violate the Eighth Amendmentâs ban on cruel and unusual punishment misidentified a justice of the court. It was Antonin Scalia, not Samuel A. Alito Jr.