>> these cities pretend there's nothing they can do and continue to sue for the right to inflict cruel and unusual punishment on their citizens The punishment

>> these cities pretend there's nothing they can do and continue to sue for the right to inflict cruel and unusual punishment on their citizens The punishment for vagrancy was the same as the typical punishment for many other crimes - a short stay in jail or a fine. That's neither cruel nor unusual. Far from being unusual, it is a completely ordinary punishment. The cruel and unusual punishment clause was intended by the authors the Constitution to prohibit the use of torture in order to get a confession. The founders were worried about things like the Inquisition or the use of torture devices like the rack. The 9th Circuit completely ignored the original meaning of the Constitution, as it has done in so many other cases. Hopefully the Supreme Court will uphold the rule of law here, instead of continuing to allow the judicial branch to usurp the functions of the legislative branch by ignoring or misinterpreting the law in order to enact its own policy decisions.