The incorporation doctrine is the doctrine that the bill of rights applies not only to the federal government, but also to the states. Prior to the Civil War the Supreme Court had held that the Bill of Rights was not fully incorporated, which is to say that the states had the power to limit the freedoms articulated by the bill of rights. When the civil war ended the framers of the 14th Amendment explicitly said that the purpose of the Amendment was to extend the Bill of Rights to the states, that is, to fully establish incorporation. This vision for the 14th Amendment is how it is mostly understood today, but getting this has only been the case relatively recently. The Court held, rather, that the 14th Amendment selectively incorporated the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the extent that this was required in order to protect due proces. Over time this selective incorporation has extended to the point that the whole bill of rights is now incorporated.
