-
United States Supreme Court began to apply the guarantees of the Bill of Rights to the Sates. The Court based its actions on the due process cluase of the Fourteenth Amendment, which reads: No State shall. . . deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. Due process is simply the right to be treated fairly under the legal system.
-
In a long series of cases the Supreme Court gradually began using the due process clause to say that states could not abridge a right that the national government could not abridge.
-
In a 1931 Supreme Court cas, the Court ruled that the freedom of the press offered by the national Bill of Rights had to be offered by every state as well.
-
In a 1934 case, the Supreme Court ruled that freedom of religion provided for in the First Amendment had to be provided by all states.
-
Supreme Court broadened its interpretations to limit sate action in most areas in which national government action is limited. These areas include the Fourht Amendment prohibition agianst unreasonable searches and siezures, the
Fifth Amendment prohibition against compulsory self-incrimination, and the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusaul punishments.
