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I don't know, it doesn't really seem like the courts are stretching their interpretation to me.
But the first is pretty clearly limiting Congress, not the states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
But even more importantly, rulings such as Barron v Baltimore in 1833 established that the bill of rights was indeed a limitation of federal, not state, authority:
Barron v. Baltimore - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia