How did the Fourteenth Amendment and the process of incorporation transform the Bill of Rights?
Narrator says the 14th Amendment was enacted 'after reconstruction in 1868'; it was ratified during Reconstruction. Not tested.
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The video explains incorporation. In Barron v. Baltimore (1833), the Supreme Court held that the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government, so a wharf owner could not sue the city of Baltimore under it. After the 14th Amendment (1868), beginning around the start of the 20th century, the Court selectively incorporated parts of the Bill of Rights through the 14th Amendment so they also bind state and local governments.
You'll be able to
- explain what Barron v. Baltimore decided about the Bill of Rights.
- define incorporation and explain how it works through the 14th Amendment.
- give examples of state and local officials now bound by the Bill of Rights.
Key words
- Bill of Rights
- The first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, protecting individual rights.
- Barron v. Baltimore
- An 1833 case holding that the Bill of Rights limited only the federal government.
- Incorporation
- The process by which the Supreme Court applied parts of the Bill of Rights to state and local governments through the 14th Amendment.
- Due process
- Fair legal procedures the government must follow before taking life, liberty or property.
- Selectively
- Choosing some parts one at a time rather than all at once.
Transcript
The Bill of Rights is in the Federal Constitution. The first 10 Amendments to the Constitution are called the Bill of Rights. Since 1833 in a decision by Chief Justice John Marshall in a case called Barron v. Baltimore, the Supreme Court had said that those rights in the first eight amendments to the United States Constitution only apply to the federal government. They don't apply to state or local governments.
Barron v. Baltimore is an interesting case having to do with a person who owned a wharf in Baltimore. Baltimore had a public works project that was essentially depositing silt and other debris into where the wharf was, and essentially made it unusable. This man named Barron ended up suing the city saying you had taken my property without due process, and Justice Marshall, ended up saying, you don't have a claim under the federal Constitution, because the federal Constitution only applies to the federal government. Now, what Incorporation did is change things with the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment is enacted after reconstruction in 1868. It contains in Section 1, two important clauses. One having to do with the privileges or immunities of citizenship, and the other having to do with due process. Beginning around the beginning of the 20th century,
depending on how you count and what you count in terms of the cases, the Supreme Court of the United States began to think that maybe the Bill of Rights actually applies beyond just the federal government, but also applies to state governments and local governments. They began selectively to take portions of the bill of rights and incorporate them through the 14th Amendment to apply to state and local actors. So now, for example, today, the First Amendment not only binds somebody like Congress or the President, but the First Amendment also binds the governor of your state, your local library board, your county sheriff, that's what incorporation does.
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