Which amendment is used in selective incorporation to apply rights to states?

• A. First Amendment
• B. Fifth Amendment
• C. Fourteenth Amendment
• D. Twenty-Sixth Amendment

Answer: (C)

Selective incorporation relies on the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause to extend many protections in the Bill of Rights to state governments. Originally, the Bill of Rights protected individuals only against the federal government; states could limit those rights. Over time, the Supreme Court has held that some of those fundamental rights are so essential to due process that they must also be honored by state action, applying them to the states one by one through court decisions. This gradual, case-by-case process is what “selective incorporation” means. The other amendments listed aren’t the vehicle for this process: the protections in the First Amendment were incorporated through the Fourteenth as cases arose; the Fifth Amendment governs federal actions (and some due-process ideas exist there too, but not as the primary vehicle for applying rights to the states), and the Twenty-Sixth Amendment concerns voting age and is unrelated to incorporation.