Well then it was one of the better kept secrets, in that neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor the Senate itself thought the 14th applied the BOR to the states.
A mere nine months after the 14th was ratified, the USSC ruled in Twitchell v. Pennsylvania that the Bill of Rights restricted only the federal government, not the states. Nobody mentioned the 14th Amendment.
Eight years after the 14th was ratified, Congress was considering the "Blaine Amendment", a proposed constitutional amendment to impose the First Amendment's religious freedom mandates on the states as well as the federal government. Why would they do that if the 14th amendment already applied the First Amendment to the states?
"If you read the Senate debate on the 14th, then it is pretty clear that is what was intended - application of the BOR to the states, that is."
pausen replies:
Well then it was one of the better kept secrets, in that neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor the Senate itself thought the 14th applied the BOR to the states.
Yes robby, -- the reconstruction eras politicians & judges did not want to admit that ex-slaves were entitled to life, liberty, or property; -- they even deprived them of due process.
Very few still hold to your belief that this was a correct interpretation of the 14th.
A mere nine months after the 14th was ratified, the USSC ruled in Twitchell v. Pennsylvania that the Bill of Rights restricted only the federal government, not the states. Nobody mentioned the 14th Amendment.
Of course not. The court did not want to enforce the 14th against the southern States that were ignoring it.
Eight years after the 14th was ratified, Congress was considering the "Blaine Amendment", a proposed constitutional amendment to impose the First Amendment's religious freedom mandates on the states as well as the federal government. Why would they do that if the 14th amendment already applied the First Amendment to the states?
Because they did not want Utah admitted as a secular State, and were preparing to pass an Amendment to that effect if necessary.
-- It wasn't. -- Rationality prevailed.
Careful. You'll upset the emanation of a penumbra fans.
Judicial Activism wasn't invented in the 1970s. Duh.