Exploring Our Nation: Federal Supremacy and Selective Incorporation

CHAPTER 1. Federal Supremacy Students will learn about the supremacy clause of the constitution that states that the constitution and the laws passed by congress are the supreme law of the land . Further, viewers will come to understand the intention of the full faith and credit clause that ensures judicial proceedings in one state are respected by other states. The program also discusses the importance of the privileges and immunities clause, the commerce clause and how the Supreme Court rulings in various cases throughout the years have shaped relationships between the federal and state governments. CHAPTER 2. Incorporation Doctrine The program explains that the Bill of Rights only applied to actions by the federal government and that state governments were not obligated to uphold those rights. Students will learn how the Supreme Court, interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment stating that it only concerned privileges and immunities that came with being a citizen of the United States, not the citizen of a state. The program explores how, over the years, the court changed its way of thinking. Viewers will learn that the Supreme Court adopted a policy known as selective incorporation or the incorporation doctrine . Students will learn that through selective incorporation the Court decides over time and on a case by case, which provisions of the Bill of Rights will extend to the states.