(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

America and the Incorporation of the Bill of Rights


            The United States Constitution was one of the most revolutionary documents of all time. It was originally intended to apply only to the federal government, while the individual states would have their own sets of laws that they would follow. However over time, the Constitution began to apply to the states as well as the federal government. Looking back at what changed is a rather long process, but an important one as it is quite possibly the most important legal development in the history of the United States government.
             The most famous section of the United States Constitution is the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the Constitution, and mainly focus on the civil liberties of citizens. When we talk about incorporation of the amendments of the Constitution, we are mainly talking about the Bill of Rights. Incorporation is the name given to the process of applying each of those amendments to the states. There are two different forms of incorporation, selective and total. Selective incorporation is a process of each individual amendment being applied through the Supreme Court to the states on its own, as each one eventually was challenged. Total incorporation would have involved just declaring all of the amendments as applying to the states at once. .
             One of the biggest early tests of incorporation was the case of Barron v Baltimore. John Barron owned a wharf in Baltimore, and the city diverted the flow of streams for construction. The result was buildup of sand near Barron's wharf, which rendered the water too shallow for most ships to come into, costing Barron a lot of business. Barron sued saying Baltimore encroached upon his Fifth Amendment rights under the Just Compensation Clause, which states that private property shall not be undertaken by the government without providing just compensation. The case made it to the Supreme Court, who ruled that the Fifth Amendment only applied to the federal government, and not the states.


Essays Related to America and the Incorporation of the Bill of Rights


Got a writing question? Ask our professional writer!
Submit My Question