Barron v. Baltimore established that the Bill of Rights restricts which level of government before incorporation?

• A. The federal government only.
• B. Both federal and state governments.
• C. The states only.
• D. Neither government.

Answer: (A)

Barron v. Baltimore shows that when the Bill of Rights was written, its protections applied to the federal government, not to the states. In that 1833 decision, the Supreme Court held that the rights in the first eight amendments restricted Congress and the national government, but did not limit state or local governments. The result is that, at the time, the federal government was the only one constrained by the Bill of Rights; state governments were free to impose or ignore those rights until later developments—most notably the Fourteenth Amendment and the doctrine of incorporation—began extending many of those protections to the states. So, the best answer is that the Bill of Rights restricted the federal government only before incorporation. The other options don’t fit because Barron explicitly distinguished the federal government from the states, and did not apply the protections to state actions at that time.