Cruel and Unusual Punishments and the Constitutional Status of the Idea of Progress
Abstract
More than three generations ago, the Supreme Court took Eighth Amendment jurisprudence on a distinctive path. The 1958 case of Trop v. Dulles declared that the notion of Cruel and Unusual Punishments "must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society." This Article carefully unpacks that language, with particular attention to relevant ideas of progress, and then addresses the current status of the Trop test in light of the Court's increasing attention to questions of text, history, tradition, and established precedent.
Fields of Study & Subjects
American Constitutional Law and Politics
Legal and Constitutional Studies
Comparative constitutional jurisprudence studies
Publication details
- Journal / source
- FIU Law Review
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 1061–1088
- Publication date
- 27 February 2026
- Language
- EN