Thomas E. Patterson Summary

Thomas E. Patterson explains the concept of selective incorporation as the process by which certain of the rights contained in the Bill of Rights become applicable through the Fourteen Amendment to actions by the state governments. Before the doctrine of selective doctrine, the Bill of Rights only applied to action by the federal government and not against action by the states. Until in 1925, the Court invoked the Fourteen Amendment in a case involving the state government, which marked a fundamental shift in constitutional doctrine. Which concluded that a right protected by the Bill of Rights from action by the federal government was now also protected from action by individual states, leading to a more national understanding of civil liberties.