The Debate Between The Fourteenth Amendment

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There was a huge debate between the whether Fourteenth Amendment was to be applied to the Bill of Rights for the states. This leads to the ideas of total and selective incorporation. Total incorporation is when the Bill of Rights is 100% recognized while selective incorporation is when the Bill of Rights is partially recognized. The federal government had total incorporation while the states had selective. This was when federalism was impeding on the process of incorporation because of most of the powers going to the states. The federal government wasn’t being taken seriously at the time. With all the power going to the states, it was difficult for an inferior power to force the individual states to abide by the Bill of Rights. In Gitlow v.