Ninth Amendment

Definition

The Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution states: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” The Ninth Amendment tells us that the existence of a written constitution should not be treated as an excuse for ignoring rights that are not explicitly listed in the Constitution, but it also tells us that the advocates of these rights cannot rest on ancient constitutional text to establish their existence. The Ninth Amendment limits the ability of the national government to infringe non-enumerated (written) rights. The Ninth Amendment was James Madison’s attempt to ensure that the Bill of Rights was not seen as granting to the people of the United States only the specific rights it addressed. In recent years, some have interpreted it as affirming the existence of such “unenumerated” rights outside those expressly protected by the Bill of Rights.

Example

Questions

1. What does The Ninth Amendment protect?

2. What does The Ninth Amendment limit?

3. How does The Ninth Amendment limit government?

4. How would the government of the United States be different without The Ninth Amendment?

5. Use The Ninth Amendment in a sentence of your own design or turn it into an emoji?

6. How does The Ninth Amendment limit the federal government?

7. How does The Ninth Amendment limit state governments?

8. What is the connection between The Ninth Amendment and individual liberty?

9. If you had to rank the 10 amendments of the Bill of Rights from most to least important, where would The Ninth Amendment rank?

10. Heidi Schreck, author of What the Constitution Means to Me says that her favorite Amendment is the Ninth Amendment, because, "This little, tiny, magic amendment, right there at the end of the Bill of Rights ... says there are rights that we did not list in this document," Schreck says. "You have those rights. We don't know what they are — we're not going to tell you — but they're there." Do you agree with her?

Remember!

Now, let’s commit this term to our long-term memory. On a scrap piece of paper, take 10 or 20 seconds to draw The Ninth Amendment! Draw with symbols or stick figures if you wish. Nothing fancy. Don’t expect a masterpiece. No one else will see this but you. Look at your drawing. That’s all - now it’s downloaded into your memory. Destroy the piece of paper in a most delightful way.

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Further Review

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