Incorporation of the Bill of Rights

Incorporation is the process by which the Supreme Court applied most protections in the U.S. Bill of Rights to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment.

Fourteenth Amendment: A constitutional amendment adopted in 1868 that defines citizenship and restricts state power through several clauses. Its Due Process Clause became the main constitutional route for applying Bill of Rights protections to states.
Barron v. Baltimore: A 1833 Supreme Court decision holding that the Bill of Rights restricted only the federal government, not the states. It states the pre-incorporation rule that the Fourteenth Amendment later transformed.
Total incorporation: The theory that the Fourteenth Amendment made every protection in the Bill of Rights applicable to the states. It contrasts with the selective approach the Supreme Court adopted.
Exclusionary rule: A rule barring the use of evidence obtained in violation of constitutional protections against unlawful searches and seizures. Its application to states followed incorporation of the Fourth Amendment.
Due Process Clause: The Fourteenth Amendment clause barring states from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. The Supreme Court used it to make particular Bill of Rights guarantees binding on states.
Mapp v. Ohio: A 1961 Supreme Court decision requiring states to exclude evidence obtained through unconstitutional searches and seizures. It applied the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule to state criminal trials.
Fundamental fairness: A due-process approach asking whether state procedures meet basic standards of fairness, rather than applying each Bill of Rights guarantee directly. It was an alternative framework for protecting defendants before selective incorporation took hold.
Right to counsel: The legal right to assistance from a lawyer in specified criminal proceedings. Incorporation required states to provide counsel to qualifying indigent defendants.
Selective incorporation: The doctrine applying Bill of Rights protections to states individually when the Supreme Court finds them fundamental to ordered liberty. This case-by-case method, rather than wholesale adoption, defines modern incorporation.
Gideon v. Wainwright: A 1963 Supreme Court decision requiring states to provide lawyers to indigent defendants charged with serious crimes. It incorporated the Sixth Amendment right to counsel in state felony cases.

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