The incorporation of civil liberties to apply to the states is achieved primarily through which amendment?

• A. The 13th Amendment
• B. The 14th Amendment
• C. The 15th Amendment
• D. The 19th Amendment

Answer: (B)

The idea tested here is that protections from the Bill of Rights come to apply to state governments through the Fourteenth Amendment. Its Due Process Clause says no state shall deprive anyone of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. The Supreme Court has used this to develop the doctrine of selective incorporation, meaning most of the rights listed in the Bill of Rights are binding on the states because they are protected through due process. So civil liberties aren’t just limits on the federal government anymore; they also constrain state and local governments. The other amendments listed relate to emancipation and voting rights, not the mechanism by which state governments are bound to protect civil liberties.