The Ninth Amendment

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

In 1789, James Madison sat down and wrote the Bill of Rights in hopes that it would be added to the United States Constitution. The Federalists and Antifederalists had differing views when it came to whether or not the Bill of Rights was necessary. The Federalists were in the opinon that if we enumerated rights we were stating that those were the only rights we held. The Antifederalists opinion that it (the Bill of Rights) would help to ensure individual liberty was agreed upon and 10 of the amendments were accepted. The Constitution was ratified to include the Bill of rights in 1791, after it had been accepted by every state.

James Madison penned the 9th amendment to clarify and ensure that the rights that were clearly expressed in the Bill of Rights were not the only rights United States citizens held.
Making an amendment for every right we have, was an implausible solution, all the additional rights we have that are not specified are covered by the ninth amendment.

The Supreme court has used the 9th amendment to decide many cases, but it is still one of the least used amendments.
The ninth amendment played a role in the final Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade (1973, abortion), Griswold v Connecticut (1965,contraceptives), there are quite a few more, but these two are well known examples.

In my opinion, the ninth amendment is essential in reducing the amount of interference the government causes to individuals and their families. It is my favorite amendment, because it grants rights to the people that we often don't even think about as rights. We have more rights then we often acknowledge, I am fairly confident in making the assumption that most people don't think about the ninth amendment often, if ever.

The ninth amendment plays a role in privacy, our right to marry or not marry, reproductive rights, educational matters (home schooling), the right to freely travel within our country, and the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. The most recent example of the use of the ninth amendment is the federal decision to legalize same sex marriage.

There are likely many more issues that the ninth amendment pertains to, can you think of any? Enlighten me :)

Thank you for reading!

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