Reversing Incorporation?
The Incorporation Doctrine is a commonly accepted constitutional interpretation asserting that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution made the Bill of Rights enforceable by the federal government against the states. But not everyone agrees. In his paper Reversing...
The Incorporation Doctrine Waters Down the Second Amendment
Many people want the federal government to protect the right to keep and bear arms by applying the Second Amendment to the states and using it to limit state gun control. The problem with this strategy is that we almost always end up with a lower standard for the...
Yet Another Example of How Written Constitutions Don’t Enforce Themselves
Constitutions don’t enforce themselves. That’s why James Madison called them “parchment barriers.” While there are plenty of examples of this at the federal level, it’s worth looking at a situation at the state level that perhaps demonstrates this...