No State Shall Abridge: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Bill of Rights

by Michael Kent Curtis

Overview

"The book is carefully organized and well written, and it deals with a question that is still of great importance-what is the relationship of the Bill of Rights to the states."-Journal of American History

"Curtis effectively settles a serious legal debate: whether the framers of the 14th Amendment intended to incorporate the Bill of Rights guarantees and thereby inhibit state action. Taking on a formidable array of constitutional scholars, . . . he rebuts their argument with vigor and effectiveness, conclusively demonstrating the legitimacy of the incorporation thesis. . . . A bold, forcefully argued, important study."-Library Journal

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822310358
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	01/31/1990
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	290
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.61(d)
Lexile:	1690L (what's this?)

About the Author

Michael Kent Curtis is Professor of Law at Wake Forest University School of Law.

Table of Contents

Forward vii

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 - From the Revolution to the Bill of Rights and Beyond 18

Chapter 2 - The Historical Background of the Fourteenth Amendment 26

Chapter 3 - The Framing of the Fourteenth Amendment 57

Chapter 4 - In Which Some Historical Arguments Against Application of the Bill of Rights to the States Are Analyzed 92

Chapter 5 - The Amendment Before the States 131

Chapter 6 - Congressional Interpretation 154

Chapter 7 - The Amendment Before the Courts (Part One) 171

Chapter 8 - The Amendment Before the Courts (Part Two) 197

Conclusion 212

Notes 221

Index 267

Editorial Reviews

"Curtis effectively settles a serious legal debate: whether the framers of the 14th Amendment intended to incorporate the Bill of Rights guarantees and thereby inhibit state action. Taking on a formidable array of constitutional scholars, . . . he rebuts their argument with vigor and effectiveness, conclusively demonstrating the legitimacy of the incorporation thesis. . . . A bold, forcefully argued, important study."-- "Library Journal"

"The book is carefully organized and well written, and it deals with a question that is still of great importance--what is the relationship of the Bill of Rights to the states."-- "Journal of American History"

From the Publisher

The book is carefully organized and well written, and it deals with a question that is still of great importance—what is the relationship of the Bill of Rights to the states.

Journal of American History

Curtis effectively settles a serious legal debate: whether the framers of the 14th Amendment intended to incorporate the Bill of Rights guarantees and thereby inhibit state action. Taking on a formidable array of constitutional scholars, with the Attorney General in the wings, he rebuts their argument with vigor and effectiveness, conclusively demonstrating the legitimacy of the incorporation thesis. He does so by placing the Amendment in the stew of history: by examining first the historical context, and then Republican ideology as reflected in legislative debate over the 13th and 14th amendments as well as over the 1866 Civil Rights Act. Taking the legal story down to the present, Curtis traces the Court's gradual acceptance of incorporation, until Cardozo in Palko and then until the Burger Court. A bold, forcefully argued, important study. Milton Cantor, History Dept., Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst

Library Journal