In Barron v. Baltimore (1833), the Supreme Court suggested that the first eight amendments in the Bill of Rights served only to limit the powers of the national government and did not apply to the state governments. By 1925, however, the Court suggested that the free speech and press protections of the first amendment did apply to the state governments. Write an essay addressing the following questions: (a) Prior to the Civil War and Reconstruction, why did the Court tend to apply the Bill of Rights only to the national government? (b) How exactly is it that, by the middle of the twentieth century, the Court had reasoned that many protections in the Bill of Rights protected individuals against abuses of power by the state governments? (c) Using the readings in the course thus far, identify and discuss a few cases which illustrate this changed understanding of the Bill of Rights.
For this assignment, you will write one essay. Your goal is to demonstrate a good grasp of the relevant readings and course themes, and to analyze and evaluate these things in a coherent and insightful fashion. Your essay should be clear, well-argued, and firmly grounded in the relevant texts. You should offer competent citations to the course readings when appropriate (parenthetical citations with a page number are sufficient). Essays that fail to meet these criteria will be heavily penalized.
There is no need to employ any sources outside the readings assigned on the course syllabus. As long as you are employing course readings, there is no need for a works cited page.