Does the Eighth Amendment's Excessive Fines Clause protect a pro per indigent party in State courts, whether or not she uses the term 'Eighth Amendment' in her opposition in describing her indigence and the excessiveness of fines?
The Eighth Amendment ’s Excessive Fines Clause, which protects against excessive punitive economic sanctions, is fundamental to the scheme of ordered liberty, with deep roots in the Nation ’s history and tradition, and thus the Clause is an incorporated protection applicable to the States under the Fourteenth Amendment Amendment ’s Due Process Clause. U.S. Const. Amends. 8, 14. Does the Eighth Amendment ’s Excessive Fines Clause protect a pro per indigent party in State courts, whether or not she uses the term “Eighth Amendment ” in her opposition in describing her indigence and the excessiveness of fines?