Prohibitions on excessive fines date back at least as far as Magna Carta in 1215, and the U.S. Constitution has barred excessive fines since 1791. But the Supreme Court has only recently begun to interpret what the Excessive Fines Clause means, and it wasn’t until 2019 that the Court said the Clause applies to the states.
On this episode: the story of how the Supreme Court finally began to incorporate the Bill of Rights rights against the states and the history of excessive fines.
Click here for transcript. Click here for Episode 1.
Click for iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, and Stitcher.
Guests
Beth Colgan, UCLA Law
Marc Lendler, Smith College
Robert Thomas, William & Mary Law
Wesley Hottot, Institute for Justice
Resources
Timbs v. Indiana case page
Reviving the Excessive Fines Clause, by Beth Colgan
The Excessive Fines Clause: Challenging the Modern Debtor’s Prison, by Beth Colgan
Gitlow v. New York: Every Idea an Incitement, by Marc Lendler
The definitive Chicago B. & Q.R. Co. v. Chicago blog post, by Robert Thomas
Free Speech in its Forgotten Years, 1870-1920, by David Rabban
Recent Episodes
Needless Friction. And Treason.
On this episode: the story of Pullman abstention, the first of several abstention doctrines the Supreme Court invented to let federal judges decline to decide […]
Listen NowRooker and Feldman and Treason | Season 4, Ep. 1
Next week, the Supreme Court is going to hear a huge civil rights case that no one is talking about—because the legal issue before the […]
Listen NowIndian Country | Season 3, Ep. 14
In our final episode of the season, we head to Indian Country and survey several strands of Supreme Court precedent that prevent Native Americans from […]
Listen NowNeat Takings Tricks | Season 3, Ep. 13
The Fifth Amendment says that the government must pay just compensation when it takes private property for public use, a command that, regrettably, is often […]
Listen Now