The 'Silent' Ninth Amendment Gives Americans Rights They Don't Know They Have Posted: 5 months ago by tdiggity
Few people know about the Ninth Amendment, which reaffirms in broad terms rights "retained by the people." Indeed, the Ninth flies so far under the radar that it has rarely been mentioned even by the Supreme Court."
Excerpt from a book which came out last year - great read for those of us sick of the system taking away our rights!
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Posted: 5 months ago by dollyllama:
Quite simply brilliant. I do believe we need to have a clearer understanding, a more definitive approach to our constitutional rights.
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Posted: 5 months ago by 1thirteen3:
Quite frankly, this is the most abused amendment. It's my favorite though.
Easiest to win an argument with, too.
EDIT: I'm glad that the site points out that the Amendments are the acknowledgements of natural rights rather than rights given to us.
The Amendments are to point out where the government cannot interfere, because if you have a government that can give you rights, you have a government that can take them away.
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Posted: 5 months ago by DerAlt1:
Great post and great read.
The intent of the framers of our constitution seem pretty clear here.
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Posted: 5 months ago by jwrichards:
"Unenumerated rights include, for example, the right to privacy. In the America of today, unenumerated rights account for freedoms like a woman's right to abortion."
This article is actually quite wrong. There is no "right to abortion" (there's a "right to choose an abortion", which results in different outcomes in crucially significant ways) and the "right to privacy" that frequently gets bandied about is a shorthand way of referring to other protections afforded by the Constitution. The Ninth Amendment does not enter the legal debate over these issues.
The author does clarify some of these distinctions later in the article (which is just an excerpt of the book, so yes, he may correct himself later), but no amount of spin can create rights out of nothing. At least, not in front of the Supreme Court.
While I don't necessarily agree that it shouldn't inform our debate, as a legal matter resting a so-called "right" on the Ninth Amendment is about as effective as building sandcastles to keep back tidal waves.
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Posted: 5 months ago by 1thirteen3:
« jwrichards : "Unenumerated rights include, for example, the right to privacy. In the America of today, unenumerated rights account for freedoms like a woman's right to abortion."
This article is actually quite wrong. There is no "right to abortion" (there's a "right to choose an abortion", which results in different outcomes in crucially significant ways) and the "right to privacy" that frequently gets bandied about is a shorthand way of referring to other protections afforded by the Constitution. The Ninth Amendment does not enter the legal debate over these issues.
The author does clarify some of these distinctions later in the article (which is just an excerpt of the book, so yes, he may correct himself later), but no amount of spin can create rights out of nothing. At least, not in front of the Supreme Court.
While I don't necessarily agree that it shouldn't inform our debate, as a legal matter resting a so-called "right" on the Ninth Amendment is about as effective as building sandcastles to keep back tidal waves. Actually, the Ninth Amendment was one that was used by the Justices in the court opinion for Roe v. Wade. I read the opinions and I have no idea how they came to that conclusion, but that's their reasoning.
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Posted: 5 months ago by tdiggity:
Don't upvote my comment, because I made this post, but whoever originally tossed up the avatar of the Duke in front of the American flag deserves about 1000 karma, period.
Thanks for letting me use it!
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