Ninth Amendment

[Reservation of Rights of People]

"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparge others retained by the people."

The Bill of Rights mentions certain rights that are to be protected from the government's interference, such as:

• freedom of speech
• freedom of religion
• freedom of the press
• freedom of the press
• freedom of assembly 
• right to keep and bear arms 
• etc.

However, just because a right is not mentioned in the Bill of Rights, it does not mean that the government automatically has the right to interfere with it. That is where the 9th Amendment comes in. It says that any right not enumerated, or listed, in the Constitution is still retained by the people. The Founding Fathers knew that they couldn't put every natural right that human beings need for protection in the Constitution. So they delegated certain powers the government that were specifically spelled out in the Constitution, and said that everything else is left up to individuals and to their state governments.

There are two clauses to this amendment:

1. The Enumeration of Rights Clause states that there are certain rights of the people, which are specifically listed, in the Constitution
2. The Rights Retained by the People Clause states that any rights that naturally belong to human beings, that are not specifically listed in the Constitution, are still protected rights. In other words, the government still cannot infringe on these rights, even though the Constitution doesn't say it can't Those rights are still "retained" by the people

Although it all sounds relatively clear...I do wonder who should determine what are those rights that are not listed in the Constitution but deserve the government's protection?

People claim that they have rights to something and the government has no authority to tell them whether they can or not:

• right to abortion
• right to die 
• right to same sex marriage 

All of these examples have had laws passed banning them. Does the government have the right to do that? Or is that an example of the government violating the natural rights of human beings? In many cases, courts have rules in cases involving these issues and have thrown out the laws made by the people in their legislatures, forbidding these behaviors. The Courts' rationale has been that the legislatures have no authority granted in the Constitution make laws regarding these rights and were therefore unconstitutional--but doesn't this amendment make that action constitutional?