The states must obey the Bill of Rights since they are part of the Constitution which is the federal law and above any other law (state, local).
Some of the amendments in the Bill of Rights even directly affect the states. Like Amendment 10, which says that anything the government did not make a law for, the state can do that for their own state. Like speed limits.
The process is called "selective incorporation." Selective incorporation uses the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses to apply individual clauses in the Bill of Rights to the states in order to make federal legislation and US Supreme Court decisions enforceable against and within the states.
More Information
The 14th Amendment (among others) was passed after the Civil War, and intended to give constitutional muster to the reconstruction the American south. The "due process" clause of that Amendment provides that no person shall be denied due process of the laws of the United States. The Bill of Rights are among the laws of the United States. After the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, states could no longer deny citizens the protections contained in the Bill of Rights without violating the Constitution.
Seen from this point of view, it would make sense to argue that all of the first ten Amendments was "incorporated" to the states upon ratification of the 14th Amendment. In fact, Justices Black and Douglass repeatedly made this argument. But for various reasons, that is not the approach the majority of the Court has taken. Rather, the Court has taken a step-by-step approach to incorporating the Bill of Rights. Today, most of the rights are incorporated (e.g., the First, Second, Fourth, Sixth, most of the Fifth and Eighth, the Third Amendment is incorporated to one Circuit; the Seventh is unincorporated).
For more information, see Related Questions, below.
The Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution did not originally apply to the states. They initially only applied to the federal government.
make rights contained in the bill of rights applicable to the states.
There was a point in the drafting process when the United States Constitution did not include a Bill of Rights, which was the primary sticking point in terms of ratification. A Bill of Rights did get added.
There are no implied rights. The Bill of Rights states the rights directly.
The US Constitution protects the rights of the citizens of the US. The Constitution is limited to the federal government but is made applicable to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.
The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments both guarantee the right of due process of the law. The Fifth Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights; the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, adopted in 1868, has been used to selectively incorporate the Bill of Rights to the states.
make rights contained in the bill of rights applicable to the states.
the incorporation of due process rights in the Bill of Rights so as to make them apply to the states
Because that right to due process is in the bill of rights. The bill of rights is an amendment to the constitution that is the supreme law of the United States.
Selective Incorporation has nothing to do with corporations. It's a legal doctrine related to the Supreme Court deciding whether certain parts of the Bill of Rights are held to be applicable to the states as the result of the ratification of the 14th Amendment. Most of the first 8 amendments and the 13th Amendment are held to be applicable to the states as well as the Federal government.
What is due process and what is its relationship with the bill of rights?
The due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is used by the courts to apply the Bill of Rights to the states.
The US government?
There was a point in the drafting process when the United States Constitution did not include a Bill of Rights, which was the primary sticking point in terms of ratification. A Bill of Rights did get added.
yes it was the Bill of Rights
The Fourteenth Amendment has been used to selectively incorporate the Bill of Rights to the states, most frequently via the Due Process Clause, although the Equal Protection Clause has also been used. An earlier Supreme Court decision prevented the Bill of Rights from being applied to the states via the Privileges and Immunities Clause.
the Bill of Rights the Bill of Rights
It is called a Bill of Rights. There are many different examples, such as a states Bill of Rights or the federal Bill of Rights.