How did the Fourteenth Amendment enhance the protections of the Bill of Rights?

The Fourteenth Amendment significantly enhanced the protections of the Bill of Rights by ensuring that states cannot violate individuals' rights. Ratified in 1868, the amendment includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, which extend the protections previously only applicable to the federal government under the Bill of Rights to include actions taken by state governments as well.

Before the Fourteenth Amendment, individuals had protections against federal infringement, but states had considerable latitude in how they treated their inhabitants. The incorporation doctrine, established through various Supreme Court rulings, interprets the Fourteenth Amendment as a means of applying certain Bill of Rights protections to the states. This transformation means that fundamental rights, such as free speech, the right to assemble, and the right to a fair trial, are also safeguarded from state infringement.

Such enhancement played a crucial role in the civil rights movement and the ongoing struggles to expand and protect individual liberties at both state and federal levels.