Trump Ignores Constitution - Issues Executive Order That Specifically Violates 8th Amendment Protected Rights

“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” – Eighth Amendment to The Bill of Rights

You can always count on President Donald Trump to ignore the Constitution and pretend as though he is on the side of liberty, shoot first and ask questions later (or when it comes to the Second & Fifth Amendments, take your guns first and then due process).  Trump recently violated the protections of the Eighth Amendment to the Bill of Rights by declaring the use of cashless bail as a means of bail across the country.

Here’s Trump’s Executive Order:

TAKING STEPS TO END CASHLESS BAIL TO PROTECT AMERICANS

August 25, 2025

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1. Purpose and Policy. Maintaining order and public safety requires incarcerating individuals whose pending criminal charges or criminal history demonstrate a clear ongoing risk to society. When these individuals are released without bail under city or State policies, they are permitted — even encouraged — to further endanger law-abiding, hard-working Americans because they know our laws will not be enforced. Our great law enforcement officers risk their lives to arrest potentially violent criminals, only to be forced to arrest the same individuals, sometimes for the same crimes, while they await trial on the previous charges. This is a waste of public resources and a threat to public safety.

As President, I will require commonsense policies that protect Americans’ safety and well-being by incarcerating individuals who are known threats. It is therefore the policy of my Administration that Federal policies and resources should not be used to support jurisdictions with cashless bail policies, to the maximum extent permitted by law.

Sec. 2. Consequences for Cashless Bail Jurisdictions. (a) Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General shall submit to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, a list of States and local jurisdictions that have, in the Attorney General’s opinion, substantially eliminated cash bail as a potential condition of pretrial release from custody for crimes that pose a clear threat to public safety and order, including offenses involving violent, sexual, or indecent acts, or burglary, looting, or vandalism. The Attorney General shall update this list as necessary.

(b) The head of each executive department and agency, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, shall identify Federal funds, including grants and contracts, currently provided to cashless bail jurisdictions identified pursuant to subsection (a) of this section that may be suspended or terminated, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law.

Sec. 3. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

(d) The costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the Department of Justice.

Notice how his violating of the Bill of Rights, ie. The Constitution that he swore to uphold, is somehow “protecting Americans”.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Adam Dick points out:

The Eighth Amendment of the Bill of Rights addresses the national government’s power in regard to bail. As with many other provisions in this set of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the declaration regarding bail is one of limitation on the national government’s power rather than a grant of power. “Excessive bail shall not be required,” the amendment commands.

Yet, out of whole cloth, President Donald Trump is out proclaiming he can demand that all local and state courts across America limit their use of a cashless bail that can be less onerous for accused individuals than is cash bail. Indeed, on Monday, Trump signed an executive order that puts in place a mechanism for the United States government to deny distribution of money to state and local governments that allow for cashless bail for a variety of defendants. Cashless bail provides a process by which some accused individuals can be free from incarceration while awaiting trial without having to post cash bail.

This executive order turns the Eighth Amendment bail provision on its head. Instead of protecting against excessive bail, Trump is demanding that a less restrictive form of bail be denied.

The constitutional problem with Trump’s effort to interfere with state and local cashless bail is compounded by the facts that Trump is seeking here to legislate — a power reserved to the Congress in the Constitution — and is seeking to override powers reserved to the states in the Tenth Amendment.

Trump’s action regarding cashless bail is demonstrating that he the type of politician that the Bill of Rights was adopted to protect against — a politician bent on unilaterally increasing government power at the expense of individual rights and states’ rights.

This is not about targeting violent criminals and the like as this administration has done with illegal aliens, which we have shown you that what they are doing and saying are two different stories.  This is about targeting the American people and setting the trap to start jailing innocent people who won’t have the resources to bail out without the cashless bail, which is completely constitutional.  Trump’s actions, however, are not constitutional, but lawless.

Article posted with permission from Sons of Liberty Media