In Barron v. Baltimore (1833), the Court said framers of the Constitution
did not intend the Bill of Rights to extend to the states, thus limiting it
to the national government.

A 1940 Supreme Court landmark decision in Cantwell v. Connecticut affirmed
the religious freedom rights of a Jehovah’s Witness man to go door-to-door,
despite offending some citizens. And that the state’s breach of peace laws
were too broad and permit requirements left too much to discretion of
officials.

De Jonge v. Oregon (1937) said that state governments may not violate the
First Amendment right of peaceable assembly. The decision contributed to
symbolic speech jurisprudence.

Everson v. Board of Education (1947) said spending tax funds to bus
children to religious schools did not breach the First Amendment
establishment clause.

Fiske v. Kansas (1927) overturned a conviction under a Kansas law, saying
the law violated the First Amendment. The law made it a crime to advocate
crime to effect revolution.

In Gitlow v. New York, the Court applied free speech and press protection
to the states through the due process clause of the the Fourteenth
Amendment.

Palko v. Connecticut (1937) laid the basis for the idea that some freedoms
in the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment, are more important
than others.

The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) suggested that the First Amendment could be
incorporated to the states through the 14th Amendment. Incorporation
officially started in 1925.