Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects against imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishments. This amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the United States Bill of Rights.
The amendment serves as a limitation upon the state or federal government to impose unduly harsh penalties on criminal defendants before and after a conviction. This limitation applies equally to the price for obtaining pretrial release and the punishment for crime after conviction. The phrases in this amendment originated in the English Bill of Rights of 1689.
Stella's Place 
I’m making the assumption that the attorneys for President Trump are using the punishment section of Amendment VIII in the appeal to the case Letitia James won against him. But, of course, they don’t want to merely reduce the fine to, say, $1 million, but instead want it to be thrown out altogether. I hope his attorneys really have their act together on this.
Regarding both the bail and cruel and unusual punishment portions of Amendment VIII…a couple of quotes from (https://www.annenbergclassroom.org/eighth-amendment/)….
“Bail also promotes the ideal of being innocent until proven guilty, in that a defendant is not punished with jail time before he or she actually has been convicted. Bail also assists a defendant in preparing his or her case for trial, for it is far more difficult to consult with counsel when one is in police custody.”
“Prohibition against Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The better-known component of the Eighth Amendment is the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Although this phrase originally was intended to outlaw certain gruesome methods of punishments— such as torture, burning at the stake, or crucifixion— it has been broadened over the years to protect against punishments that are grossly disproportionate to (meaning much too harsh for) the particular crime.”
“It is not just criminal sentences themselves that are subject to the cruel and unusual test; the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual provision has been used to challenge prison conditions such as extremely unsanitary cells, overcrowding, insufficient medical care and deliberate failure by officials to protect inmates from one another.”
It seems as though the New York case against President Trump is taking a page out of the case history against many of the J6 defendants. Certainly those Americans are being subjected to bail infractions by the prosecution and are also being subjected to infractions regarding filthy jail conditions. I tried to locate any use of Amendment VIII by J6 lawyers but couldn’t find any entries.
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