Which amendment provides the incorporation mechanism for applying the Bill of Rights to the states?

Which amendment provides the incorporation mechanism for applying the Bill of Rights to the states?

• A. First Amendment incorporation.
• B. Thirteenth Amendment incorporation.
• C. Tenth Amendment incorporation.
• D. Fourteenth Amendment incorporation via due process clause.

Answer: (D)

Rights in the Bill of Rights were originally aimed at limiting the federal government, not the states. To bind state governments to those protections, the Supreme Court uses the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, applying Bill of Rights guarantees to the states through a process called selective incorporation. This approach did not come from a separate “First Amendment incorporation” clause or from the Thirteenth or Tenth Amendments; those provisions address different issues (civil rights against slavery and the distribution of powers, respectively). Through due process, and sometimes alongside equal protection analysis, the Court has held that many fundamental rights—like free speech, freedom from unreasonable searches, and religious liberty—are applicable to state and local governments. That mechanism is what allows the Bill of Rights to constrain state action today. An example is the Court’s early use of due process to apply First Amendment protections to the states, establishing incorporation through the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause.

Rights in the Bill of Rights were originally aimed at limiting the federal government, not the states. To bind state governments to those protections, the Supreme Court uses the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, applying Bill of Rights guarantees to the states through a process called selective incorporation. This approach did not come from a separate “First Amendment incorporation” clause or from the Thirteenth or Tenth Amendments; those provisions address different issues (civil rights against slavery and the distribution of powers, respectively). Through due process, and sometimes alongside equal protection analysis, the Court has held that many fundamental rights—like free speech, freedom from unreasonable searches, and religious liberty—are applicable to state and local governments. That mechanism is what allows the Bill of Rights to constrain state action today. An example is the Court’s early use of due process to apply First Amendment protections to the states, establishing incorporation through the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause.