What term describes the gradual, case-by-case application of federal rights to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment?

• A. Total incorporation
• B. Partial incorporation
• C. Selective incorporation
• D. Constitutional incorporation

Answer: (C)

Selective incorporation is the process by which the Supreme Court has applied most protections in the Bill of Rights to state governments, but one right at a time, through the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. Originally, those federal protections didn’t bind the states at all; over many decades the Court has held that certain fundamental rights are essential to due process and must be honored by state laws and practices. This results in a gradual, case-by-case expansion rather than an automatic, universal application. A landmark start was the incorporation of speech protections in Gitlow v. New York (1925), followed by extending other rights like protections against unreasonable searches and seizures and the right to counsel. Yet not every right has been incorporated, and the approach is best described as selective incorporation.