Babylon Bee šŸ and other stuff that is funny

your answer is pathetic considering I am not a lawyer and never wasted my time and money on law school

I would expect a more mature argument from a so called lawyer

You didn’t know there was a list? Your law school failed you

Oh, fuggod’s sake, lay off me! You have no idea what law school is like, or was when I was there.

Five minute of quickie online research indicates this ā€œlistā€,thing isn’t true. If it were, I think our American jurisprudence, which in most jurisdictions imported common law wholesale except where it conflicted with specific local laws (the ā€œreception statutesā€) would contain reference to it, instead of, or at least in addition to, endless discussion and rumination over what the phrase means. Also, the thing about common law is that is ISN’T statutory, it’s decisional and precedential.

ā€œYour law school failed youā€? Oooh, ouch ! PLEEEEZE, sir, don’t tell my clients and my editor at our state bar magazine. After five (5) gratuitously contemptuous comments from you, I feel compelled to respond. Sorry if I ever, somehow, offended you.

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Over the line here, CB. We don’t specifically ban pointed or even insulting commentary here, but you need to support it. Like an actual citation to the list you claimed exists.

Otherwise:

If I were you, and I could not produce that list, I’d be apologizing.

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Read the first section by Richard Epstein above…

Here is one excerpt:

That interpretation makes sense because this clause is lifted word for word from the English Bill of Rights of 1689, after it accuses the deposed King James II of inflicting ā€œillegal and cruel punishments.ā€ The clause outlaws the rack, the thumb-screw, drawing and quartering, and other fiendish activities. In no sense did it outlaw the death penalty. Nor could that reading be sensibly made of our own Constitution, whose Fifth Amendment contains references to the death penalty in connection with due process, grand jury presentments, and double jeopardy.

Edit: I can’t believe we are talking about this in Babylon Bee thread

Calm down, no need for hysteria

Right back atcha.

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While not quite a comprehensive list, a set of punishments was called out:

… the clause was explicitly designed to curb the barbarous punishments prevalent during the Stuart era. Key punishments targeted or rendered illegal included:

  • Drawing and quartering: A method of execution for high treason, where the condemned was hung, disemboweled, beheaded, and cut into quarters.

  • Star Chamber punishments: Arbitrary fines, imprisonment, pillory, branding, whipping, and mutilation (such as ear-cutting) imposed by prerogative courts like the Court of Star Chamber without statutory basis.

  • Ducking-stool: A form of public humiliation and potential drowning used for women, deemed ā€œcruel and obsoleteā€ in later case law if imposed discretionally rather than by statute.

  • Torture devices: Instruments such as the rack, gibbets, and thumbscrews, which were cataloged during the ratification debates as examples of excessive cruelty.

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If anybody else cares, drawing-and- quartering, to name just one practice, went on for 2 centuries after 1689. And also if anybody else cares, you may read the 1689 English Bill of Rights to verify whether or not it contains any list of specific punishments proscribed as ā€œcruel and unusual.ā€. Please satisfy yourselves in this regard.
But I agree this argument doesn’t belong on this thread. I responded to @civilwestman ’s comment. Consequently, I was called childish, ignorant, under-educated, my professional credentials disparaged, exhorted that I should be the one to apologize, and , finally (I thought we’d never get to it!) called hysterical.
Just a tad…annoying. Bur I’m all better now!

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I pointed that at CB, not you, unless you mean some other comment?

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Oh tHANK you Phil, that means a lot. I thought you were saying I should apologize fir not having memorized a list of medieval tortures :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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Returning this thread to its original mission, here’s the most cringe item I’ve seen in a long time. Hillary’s really gotten desperate for attention.

Deadline tonight!

Take your last opportunity to enter for a chance to see @Lin_Manuel, Paul Rudd, @jimmyfallon and more belt their hearts out for a great cause. https://bit.ly/win-karaoke https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/2107149524980420978/photo/1

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 5, 2026

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Is she going to karaoke her Miranda rights?

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