"It is the incorporation doctrine that prohibits voters in each state from deciding what their law should be on school prayer, flag-burning, topless dancing, loitering, panhandling, unreasonable searches, Miranda warnings, admissibility of evidence, and, at times, the death penalty. It is the incorporation doctrine that turned views on abortion into a litmus test for judges. It is the incorporation doctrine that has put the U.S. Supreme Court at the center of controversy in American politics.  That might be fine, if anyone in the country had ever agreed to it. Instead, this overwhelming change in the structure of government was made by the U.S. Supreme Court alone, while voters and elected officials looked on, helpless to stop it.  Or are they?"

* How the First Amendment Came to Protect Topless Dancing * * A History of the  Incorporation of the Bill of Rights  into the Fourteenth Amendment,  Why It's a Problem,  and How to Fix It * * By Susan Shelley Copyright 2002  * This essay appears in the appendix to: Click Here to Continue