AP US Gov 3 7 Selective Incorporation & the 14th Amendment Fiveable

The founders of our country were very concerned about creating too powerful of a centralized government that might infringe on the given rights of the people. Thus, the first ten amendments of the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, were added to protect those rights against abuse by the federal government. Learn what the doctrine of selective incorporation is and see examples of selective incorporation cases through history. Selective incorporation means that certain rights in the Bill of Rights– – but not all rights in the Bill of Rights – – apply to the states.

See Holt Civic Club v. City of Tuscaloosa, 439 U.S. 60, 75 (seeming to conflate due process and equal protection standards in political rights cases). 165 Reagan v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co., 154 U.S. 362, 397 . And later, in 1910, the Court made a similar observation that courts may not, “under the guise of what is the difference between total and selective incorporation exerting judicial power, usurp merely administrative functions by setting aside” an order of the commission merely because such power was unwisely or expediently exercised. This statement, made in the context of federal ratemaking, appears to be equally applicable to judicial review of state agency actions.

Documents of Freedom

Introduction The debate over whether the Fourteenth Amendment makes applicable against the states all of the protections of the Bill of Rights is one of the most important and longest-lasting debates involving interpretation of the U. The Supreme Court’s first interpretation of the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment, adopted in 1868, was rendered in The Slaughterhouse Cases just five years later. By a 5 to 4 vote the Court in that case narrowly interpreted the Privileges and Immunities Clause, thought to be the most likely basis for enforcing individual rights against states.

Ninth Amendment and the Tenth Amendment have not been incorporated, and it is unlikely that they ever will be. The text of the Tenth Amendment directly interacts with state law, and the Supreme Court rarely relies upon the Ninth Amendment when deciding cases. LegalZoom provides access to independent attorneys and self-service tools. We are not a law firm and do not provide legal advice. Use of our products and services are governed by ourTerms of Use andPrivacy Policy. It is important as a business owner to understand the general costs of incorporating before beginning the process.

Examples of selective incorporation in the following topics:

In the end, the Constitution was signed and enacted without any definitive conclusion on the issue. Reverse incorporation is the process whereby the Supreme Court applies state laws to federal cases. This means that the Court converts a state law into national legislation, a reverse of the incorporation doctrine which applies federal laws to states.