Pain Speaks for Itself: Divorcing the Eighth Amendment from the Spirit of the Moment

This Comment will provide (1) the Eighth Amendment’s original meaning with regard to passive deprivations; (2) the Supreme Court’s shift from wanton and unnecessary infliction of pain to evolving standards of decency; (3) a critique of the evolving standards rule; and (4) a solution that eliminates the evolving standards rule, returns to the question of wanton and unnecessary infliction of pain, and recommends legislative reforms states should make in response.