What is Meant by Selective Incorporation?
Selective incorporation is a legal doctrine that protects the rights, immunities and privileges of U.S. citizens from state laws. It is a product of the convoluted path taken by a debate at the heart of the Constitution itself. The relationship between the individual states and the national government has been a major fault line in American legal and political thinking since the inception of the country, and was a hotly debated topic at the Philadelphia convention that produced the Constitution. In fact, the first two political parties in the United States were the federalists, who believed in a strong central government, and the anti-federalists, who did not–and insisted on a Bill of Rights limiting the government’s power over individuals before they would ratify the Constitution. Today, the process of selective incorporation through the 14th Amendment is a judicial patch covering this fundamental division.
