How did selective incorporation apply parts of the Bill of Rights to state governments?

Selective incorporation is the legal doctrine through which the U.S. Supreme Court has gradually applied most of the protections found in the Bill of Rights to state and local governments.123

Originally, the first 10 amendments were understood to restrict only the federal government. Following the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, which prohibits states from depriving any person of "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," the Supreme Court began a process of selective incorporation.241

Rather than applying the entire Bill of Rights to the states at once, the Court evaluates specific rights on a case-by-case basis. If a right is deemed "fundamental" to the American "scheme of ordered liberty" or "so rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people," it is incorporated and made enforceable against the states via the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause.413

This process has extended protections such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to a fair trial, and the right to keep and bear arms to the state level.13