Assume you’re an advisor to the Criminal Law Committee in your state’s legislature, which is considering legislation adopting “shaming” punishments for selected crimes. You’re asked to write a memorandum for the committee that answers the following questions and then recommends what, if any, legislation the committee should draft.

a. Do shaming punishments violate the Eighth Amendment ban on “cruel and unusual punishments”? 

b. Assuming they do not, are they wise public policy? According to the dissent in U.S. v. Gementera (2004), “A fair measure of a civilized society is how its institutions behave in the space between what it may have the power to do and what it should do.” 

c. Which is the harsher and/or more “humiliating”? Six months in jail or a DUI off ender ordered to perform 48 hours of community service dressed in clothes that say “This is my punishment for a DUI conviction.” 

d. Recommend what, if any, legislation the committee should enact.