Page "Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution" Paragraph 22

However, in Harmelin v. Michigan,, a fractured Court retreated from the Solem test and held that for non-capital sentences, the Eighth Amendment only constrains the length of prison terms by a " gross disproportionality principle.

" Under this principle, the Court sustained a mandatory sentence of life without parole imposed for possession of 672 grams or more of cocaine.

In Harmelin, Justice Scalia, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist, said " the Eighth Amendment contains no proportionality guarantee ," and that " what was ' cruel and unusual ' under the Eighth Amendment was to be determined without reference to the particular offense.

" Scalia wrote " If ' cruel and unusual punishments ' included disproportionate punishments, the separate prohibition of disproportionate fines ( which are certainly punishments ) would have been entirely superfluous.