Torture is allowed only to unlawful enemy combatants because they do not receive POW status and protections from the Third Geneva Convention, therefore the unlawful combatants do not receive constitutional rights. Without these constitutional rights the 8th amendment does not come into play here therefore making torture legal in the United States.
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution
specifically forbids “cruel and unusual punishment.” In a 1972 decision,
Justice Brennan of the Supreme Court specified that this amendment forbids, “a
punishment degrading to human dignity.” In other words, it is illegal to use
torture as a punishment in America. However, in 2008, Justice Scalia said in a
television interview that the Eighth Amendment forbids torture “as a
punishment.” Apparently torture is acceptable to this Justice, as long as it is
not used as punishment. Surely the court will later rule otherwise, but for
now, yes, torture is legal in America.
Interesting enough, because of the nature of law and humanity, being that humans are imperfect, tired, lazy, and do not make enough laws to combat all injustices, the perceived injustice of torture has loopholes. That is why GITMO is still open, is because we don't have exact rulings against it in US law.
Yes, the United States allows for torture in the cases of acts of war. The United States' constitution does not provide for torture for United States citizens, because the constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. But for acts of war, there are no constitutional protections, and torture is appropriate to save American lives.
United States law forbids the application of cruel or unusual punishment. Torture would fall under this category since it lacks aspects of humanity. It more often than not grievously damages victims both mentally and physically, which also makes it very cruel. The fact that it falls outside the realm of typical interrogation techniques makes it unusual.
United States law does not allow for torture. The constitution does not allow for the use of cruel or unusual punishments. Torture is by definition cruel. Rather, there are many other legal ways that the government can punish and interrogate people. The United States should not resport to barbaric punishments like torture.
The United States has a rule against cruel and unusual punishment. It is actually an amendment in the constitution. Torture would fall under cruel and unusual punishment. There is not to many things more cruel than torture. We may not have the best laws or the perfect system but it keeps us from being tortured.
The United States does not allow for torture, except for the basic information extraction. The words that come to mind, and the ideas of torture that I think of are such things as the Chinese water torture, and thumb screws, and electroshock. All of which are probably some very terrible things to have happen to a person. Those forms are no longer permitted by the government on the grounds that it is cruel and unusual punishment.