Not in the context of our conversation. Even the standard with regard to the P&I clause has moved substantially in the past century.
How so? Somewhere along the line you got the impression that once a SCOTUS decision is made, its immutable and eternal. I never said that. In fact, quite the opposite. I said that the authority of the living is greater than the authority of the dead. So I'm not quite gettting new 'context' angle. The immutability of court decisions has never been the context of our conversation.
The authority of them has been. With the most recent being the most authoritative.
However, beginning in the 1920s, a series of
United States Supreme Court decisions interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment to "incorporate" most portions of the Bill of Rights, making these portions, for the first time, enforceable against the state governments.
The first decision applying the Bill of Rights to the States would be in 1898 applying a portion of the 5th amendment. But other than that, wiki has got it.
Most of this evolved from the bastards FDR put on the court to essentially trash the USC so he could have his failing legacy of the New Deal.
The trend of assimilating the BoR to the States began in earnest in the 20s. FDR wasn't elected until 33. Speech,press, assembly and religion had already been incorporated before Roosevelt nominated a single justice.
So your timing is definitely off. And I'm still not getting why the Bill of Rights being applied to the States is a bad thing. Unless I misunderstood you, you insinuated that the application of the Bill of Rights to the States was 'heinoous'. And I don't get that. Wouldn't preventing the States from violating the freedom of speech, the press, assembly and religion be a good thing?
As for Roosevelt packing the court to get his new deal passed.....I don't know who told you that, but they're doing you no service.
As the idea is blithering nonsense. The 1st New Deal was from 33 to 36. No Roosevelt appointees were in the court. The second new deal came from 36 to 38. With all the substantive new deal cases decided by the summer of 37. Not one of these cases had a single Roosevelt appointee ruling on them. Here's the major New Deal USSC cases:
A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States
May 27, 1935
UNITED STATES v. BUTLER et al.
Jan. 6, 1936.
WEST COAST HOTEL CO. v. PARRISH
March 29, 1937
N.L.R.B. v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation
April 12, 1937
STEWARD MACHINE CO. v. DAVIS
May 24, 1937
HELVERING et. al. v. DAVIS
May 24, 1937
Hugo Black, the very first Roosevelt nominee didn't take the bench until August 1937. And by then all of the New Deal legislation had already been passed, with key provisions substantially affirmed by the court. Including Social Security. Whoever told you that Roosevelt packed the court to get his New Deal legislation passed would need a delorian and a flux capacitor to make their argument work. Its simple nonsense.
You may be confusing Roosevelt's PLAN to pack the court with folks that agreed with him with him actually doing it. He most definitely wanted to pack the court with New Deal supporters. But the spring of 1937 made that unnecessary, as the courts affirmed the key provisions of his legislation before he could nominate anyone.
This is some 60 years past it's illegal passage. Wow.....it sure was clear.
The Slaughter House cases are generally regarded as some of the worst the USSC ever made. Poorly thought through, clearly contradicted by the intent of their subject matter, etc. But the authority to interpret is the courts. They are bound to what the amendment actually said, not what the writers intended by that writing. And when the courts interpreted the 14th in contradiction of Bingham and Howard, the court interpretation was authoritative.
Since the USSC tends to be conservative (a description of process, not politics) in their interpreting of the constitution, they loathe explicit contradictions of previous rulings. Thus the later courts focus on equal protection and due process in incorporating the Bill of Rights rather than a direct challenge to the Slaughter House's privileges and immunities rulings.