State laws cannot provide less protection of constitutional rights than federal law.

• A. False
• B. True
• C. Depends on state
• D. Not applicable

Answer: (B)

The main idea is that federal constitutional rights set a minimum level of protection that states must meet. Because the Supremacy Clause makes the U.S. Constitution the supreme law, and through incorporation via the Fourteenth Amendment most federal rights apply to state actions, states cannot provide less protection than the federal baseline. They can expand protections beyond what federal law requires, but they cannot fall below it for those rights that are protected against state action. So the statement is true. There are edge cases where a right hasn’t been incorporated yet, or where a state constitution offers its own protections, but the governing principle is that federal guarantees set the minimum that state law must meet.