United States of America
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Preamble
Articles of the Constitution
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Amendments to the Constitution
Bill of Rights I ∙ II ∙ III ∙ IV ∙ V ∙ VI ∙ VII ∙ VIII ∙ IX ∙ X Subsequent Amendments XI ∙ XII ∙ XIII ∙ XIV ∙ XV ∙ XVI XVII ∙ XVIII ∙ XIX ∙ XX ∙ XXI ∙ XXII XXIII ∙ XXIV ∙ XXV ∙ XXVI ∙ XXVII Wikisource has original text related to this article: Preamble to the United States Constitution The preamble to the United States Constitution consists of a single sentence (a preamble) which introduces the document and its purpose. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Article One of the United States Constitution Article One of the United States Constitution describes the powers of the legislative branch of the United States government, known as Congress, which includes the House of Representatives and the Senate. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Article Two of the United States Constitution Article Two of the United States Constitution creates the executive branch of the government, comprising the President and other executive officers. ... Article Three of the United States Constitution establishes the judicial branch of the federal government. ... Article Four of the United States Constitution relates to the states. ... Article Five of the United States Constitution describes the process whereby the Constitution may be altered. ... Article Six establishes the United States Constitution and the laws and treaties of the United States made in accordance with it as the supreme law of the land, and fulfills other purposes. ... Article Seven of the United States Constitution describes the process by which the entire document is to be ratified and take effect. ... The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are known as the Bill of Rights. This is a complete list of all ratified and unratified amendments to the United States Constitution which have received the approval of the Congress. ... Image of the United States Bill of Rights from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration The United States Bill of Rights consists of the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. ... The Bill of Rights in the National Archives The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is a part of the United States Bill of Rights. ... The Bill of Rights in the National Archives Amendment II (the Second Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, declares the necessity for a well regulated militia, and prohibits infringement of the right of the people to keep and bear arms. ... The Bill of Rights in the National Archives The Third Amendment to the United States Constitution is a part of the United States Bill of Rights. ... The Bill of Rights in the National Archives Amendment IV (the Fourth amendment) to the United States Constitution is one of the provisions included in the Bill of Rights. ... The Bill of Rights in the National Archives Amendment V (the Fifth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, is related to legal procedure. ... Amendment VI (the Sixth Amendment) of the United States Constitution codifies rights related to criminal prosecutions in federal courts. ... Amendment VII (the Seventh Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, codifies the right to jury trial in certain civil trials. ... The Bill of Rights in the National Archives Amendment VIII (the Eighth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the U.S. Bill of Rights, prohibits excessive bail or fines, as well as cruel and unusual punishment. ... The Bill of Rights in the National Archives Amendment X (the Tenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791. ... Amendment XI (the Eleventh Amendment) of the United States Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress on March 4, 1794 and was ratified on February 7, 1795. ... The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution altered Article II pertaining to presidential elections. ... Amendment XIII in the National Archives Amendment XIII (the Thirteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution officially abolished, and continues to prohibit, slavery, and, with limited exceptions such as those convicted of a crime, prohibits involuntary servitude. ... Amendment XIV in the National Archives The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (Amendment XIV) is one of the post-Civil War amendments, intended to secure rights for former slaves. ... Amendment XV in the National Archives 1870 celebration of the 15th amendment as a guarantee of African American rights 1867 drawing depicting the first vote by African Americans Amendment XV (the Fifteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution provides that governments in the United States may not prevent a citizen... Amendment XVI in the National Archives Amendment XVI (the Sixteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, authorizing income taxes in their present form, was ratified on February 3, 1913. ... Amendment XVII (the Seventeenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution proposed on May 13, 1912 and ratified on April 8, 1913 and first in effect for the election of 1914, amends Article 1 Section 3 of the Constitution to provide for the direct election of Senators by the people of... Amendment XVIII in the National Archives Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol. ... Amendment XIX in the National Archives Amendment XIX (the Nineteenth Amendment) to the United States Constitution provides that neither the individual states of the United States nor its federal government may deny a citizen the right to vote because of the citizens sex. ... Page 1 of Amendment XX in the National Archives Page 2 of the amendment Amendment XX (the Twentieth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, also called The Lame Duck Amendment, or the Norris Amendment,[] establishes some details of presidential succession and of the beginning and ending of the terms of... Amendment XXI (the Twenty-first Amendment) to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide Prohibition. ... Amendment XXII in the National Archives The Twenty-second Amendment of the United States Constitution sets a term limit for the President of the United States, providing that No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office... Amendment XXIII was the twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution which permits the District of Columbia to choose Electors for President and Vice President. ... Amendment XXIV in the National Archives Amendment XXIV (the Twenty-fourth Amendment) of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. ... Amendment XXV (the Twenty-fifth Amendment) of the United States Constitution clarifies an ambiguous provision of the Constitution regarding succession to the Presidency, and establishes procedures both for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President as well as responding to Presidential disabilities. ... Amendment XXVI in the National Archives Amendment XXVI (the Twenty-sixth Amendment) of the United States Constitution was ratified on July 1, 1971. ... Amendment XXVII (the Twenty-seventh Amendment) is the most recent amendment to be incorporated into the United States Constitution, having been ratified in 1992. ...
Complete text of the Constitution
Preamble and Articles Bill of Rights Subsequent Amendments
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The Bill of Rights in the National Archives

Amendment IX (the Ninth Amendment) to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, addresses rights of the people that are not specifically enumerated in the Constitution. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (4318x4592, 1500 KB) Description: THE BILL OF RIGHTS Credit: NARA [1] Usage: File links The following pages link to this file: United States Constitution United States Bill of Rights Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (4318x4592, 1500 KB) Description: THE BILL OF RIGHTS Credit: NARA [1] Usage: File links The following pages link to this file: United States Constitution United States Bill of Rights Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera... The National Archives building in Washington, DC The United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Constitution of the United States of America Page one of the original copy of the Constitution. ... Image of the United States Bill of Rights from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration The United States Bill of Rights consists of the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. ...

Text

Adoption

When the US Constitution was sent to the states for ratification in 1787, Anti-Federalists argued that a Bill of Rights should be added. One argument of Federalists against the addition of a Bill of Rights, during the debates about ratification of the Constitution, was that a listing of rights could problematically enlarge the powers specified in Article One, Section 8 of the new Constitution, by implication. For example, in Federalist 84, Alexander Hamilton asked, "why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?" Likewise, James Madison explained to Thomas Jefferson as follows: "I conceive that in a certain degree ... the rights in question are reserved by the manner in which the federal powers are granted"^[1] in Article One, Section 8 of the Constitution. The Anti-Federalist Party, though not a true political party, but a faction, left a major legacy on the country by initiating the Bill of Rights. ... In the United States, Federalism is a label applied to at least three distinct political movements: During the 1780s, Federalism was a movement whose governing philosophy was that national government under the Articles of Confederation was too weak. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Article One of the United States Constitution Article One of the United States Constitution describes the powers of the legislative branch of the United States government, known as Congress, which includes the House of Representatives and the Senate. ... Title page of an early Federalist compilation. ... Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757–July 12, 1804) was an Army officer, lawyer, Founding Father, American politician, leading statesman, financier and political theorist. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Article One of the United States Constitution Article One of the United States Constitution describes the powers of the legislative branch of the United States government, known as Congress, which includes the House of Representatives and the Senate. ...

The Anti-Federalists persisted in favor of a Bill of Rights during the ratification debates, and consequently several of the state ratification conventions provided their assent with a coda attached, requesting a Bill of Rights to be added. In 1788, the ratification by the Commonwealth of Virginia attempted to solve the problem that Hamilton and the Federalists had identified, by proposing a constitutional amendment specifying:^[2]

That those clauses which declare that Congress shall not exercise certain powers be not interpreted in any manner whatsoever to extend the powers of Congress. But that they may be construed either as making exceptions to the specified powers where this shall be the case, or otherwise as inserted merely for greater caution.

This proposal ultimately led to the Ninth Amendment. In 1789, while introducing to the House of Representatives twelve draft Amendments, James Madison addressed what would become the 9th Amendment as follows:^[3] Seal of the House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives (or simply the House) is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress, the other being the Senate. ... James Madison (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836), an American politician and fourth President of the United States of America (1809–1817), was one of the most influential Founders of the United States. ...

It has been objected also against a Bill of Rights, that, by enumerating particular exceptions to the grant of power, it would disparage those rights which were not placed in that enumeration; and it might follow by implication, that those rights which were not singled out, were intended to be assigned into the hands of the General Government, and were consequently insecure. This is one of the most plausible arguments I have ever heard against the admission of a bill of rights into this system; but, I conceive, that it may be guarded against. I have attempted it, as gentlemen may see by turning to the last clause of the fourth resolution. Image of the United States Bill of Rights from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration The United States Bill of Rights consists of the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. ...

Like Hamilton, Madison was concerned that enumerating various rights could "enlarge the powers delegated by the constitution". Id. Here is the draft of the Ninth Amendment that Madison submitted to Congress in order to solve this problem:

The exceptions here or elsewhere in the constitution, made in favor of particular rights, shall not be so construed as to diminish the just importance of other rights retained by the people; or as to enlarge the powers delegated by the constitution; but either as actual limitations of such powers, or as inserted merely for greater caution. Id.

This was an intermediate form of the Ninth Amendment that borrowed language from the Virginia proposal, while foreshadowing the final version. Like Madison's draft, the final text of the Ninth Amendment speaks of other rights than those enumerated in the Constitution. The character of those other rights was indicated by Madison in his speech introducing the Bill of Rights (emphasis added):

It has been said, by way of objection to a bill of rights....that in the Federal Government they are unnecessary, because the powers are enumerated, and it follows, that all that are not granted by the constitution are retained; that the constitution is a bill of powers, the great residuum being the rights of the people; and, therefore, a bill of rights cannot be so necessary as if the residuum was thrown into the hands of the Government. I admit that these arguments are not entirely without foundation, but they are not as conclusive to the extent it has been proposed. It is true the powers of the general government are circumscribed; they are directed to particular objects; but even if government keeps within those limits, it has certain discretionary powers with respect to the means, which may admit of abuse. Id.

For the Founders, "rights" (against the actions of government) were always complementary to delegated powers of government, partitioning the space of public action. Each delimits its complement. Every constitutional "right" (or "immunity" to use a term in Article Four of the Constitution) delimits its opposing power, and every delegated power delimits its opposing right. The Privileges and Immunities Clause (U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1, also known as the Comity Clause) prevents states from treating citizens of other states in a discriminatory manner, with regard to basic civil rights. ...

The First through Eighth Amendments address the means by which the federal government exercises its enumerated powers, while the Ninth Amendment addresses a "great residuum" of rights that have not been "thrown into the hands of the government." The Ninth Amendment became part of the Constitution on December 15, 1791 upon ratification by three-fourths of the states.

Interpretation

The Ninth Amendment has generally been regarded by the courts as negating any expansion of governmental power on account of the enumeration of rights in the Constitution, but the Amendment has not been regarded as further limiting governmental power. The U.S. Supreme Court explained this, in United Public Workers v. Mitchell 330 U.S. 75 (1947):

If granted power is found, necessarily the objection of invasion of those rights, reserved by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, must fail.

Some jurists have asserted that the Ninth Amendment is relevant to interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Justice Arthur Goldberg (joined by Chief Justice Warren and Justice Brennan) expressed this view in a concurring opinion in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut (1965): Holding A Connecticut law criminalizing the use of contraceptives violated the right to marital privacy. ...

[T]he Framers did not intend that the first eight amendments be construed to exhaust the basic and fundamental rights.... I do not mean to imply that the .... Ninth Amendment constitutes an independent source of rights protected from infringement by either the States or the Federal Government....While the Ninth Amendment - and indeed the entire Bill of Rights - originally concerned restrictions upon federal power, the subsequently enacted Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the States as well from abridging fundamental personal liberties. And, the Ninth Amendment, in indicating that not all such liberties are specifically mentioned in the first eight amendments, is surely relevant in showing the existence of other fundamental personal rights, now protected from state, as well as federal, infringement.

Subsequent to Griswold, some judges have tried to use the Ninth Amendment to justify judicially enforcing rights that are not enumerated. For example, the District Court that heard the case of Roe v. Wade ruled that the Ninth Amendment protected a limited right to abortion.^[4] However, Justice William O. Douglas rejected that view; Douglas wrote that, "The Ninth Amendment obviously does not create federally enforceable rights." See Doe v. Bolton (1973). Holding Texas law making it a crime to assist a woman to get an abortion violated her due process rights. ... Doe v. ...

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals stated as follows in Gibson v. Matthews, 926 F.2d 532, 537 (6th Cir. 1991):

[T]he ninth amendment does not confer substantive rights in addition to those conferred by other portions of our governing law. The ninth amendment was added to the Bill of Rights to ensure that the maxim expressio unius est exclusio alterius would not be used at a later time to deny fundamental rights merely because they were not specifically enumerated in the Constitution. Statutory interpretation is the process of interpreting and applying legislation. ...

Professor Laurence Tribe shares this view: "It is a common error, but an error nonetheless, to talk of 'ninth amendment rights.' The ninth amendment is not a source of rights as such; it is simply a rule about how to read the Constitution."^[5] Likewise, Justice Antonin Scalia has expressed the same view, in Troxel v. Granville (2000): Holding A law that allows anyone to petition a court for child visitation rights over parental objections unconstitutionally infringes on parents fundamental right to rear their children. ...

The Declaration of Independence...is not a legal prescription conferring powers upon the courts; and the Constitution’s refusal to 'deny or disparage' other rights is far removed from affirming any one of them, and even farther removed from authorizing judges to identify what they might be, and to enforce the judges’ list against laws duly enacted by the people.

In the year 2000, the Harvard historian Bernard Bailyn gave a speech at the White House on the subject of the Ninth Amendment. He stated that the rights referred to in the Ninth Amendment are rights that may be "enacted into law." Here is how Dr. Bailyn interpreted the Ninth Amendment:^[6] It has been suggested that The Peopling of British North America be merged into this article or section. ...

When the federal Constitution was written the wisest minds in America decided that there should be no national Bill of Rights, not merely because most of the state constitutions already contained some such protections, but, as Madison (who would later write the federal Bill of Rights) said, 'There is a great reason to fear that a positive declaration of some of the most essential rights could not be obtained in the requisite latitude.' In other words, the enumeration of rights by the federal government, the mere listing of them and defining them, would necessarily limit their scope. 'The rights of conscience in particular [he said], if submitted to public definition, would be narrowed more than they are likely ever to be by an assumed power.' The right solution, he and others then felt, was what is implied in the present 9th Amendment: that, in addition to the rights specified by the states, there is a universe of rights, possessed by the people latent rights, still to be evoked and enacted into law. But was this workable? In any given situation, someone would have to decide whether the rights that were claimed were valid, and that would leave the existence of rights to the mercy of personal and political opinion, and no one would be safe. Some rights a core body of rights protected against the powers of the federal government would have to be specified, and the residue somehow protected in general terms. This is the compromise that we have inherited from them and that we live with, and struggle with, and benefit from, every day of our lives: in the first eight amendments of the Constitution, a carefully worded list of specific rights protected from encroachment by the federal government, together with the belief that there are not only rights protected by the states but a reservoir of other, unenumerated rights that the people retain, which in time may be enacted into law.

It is important, when discussing the history of the Bill of Rights, to note that the Supreme Court held in Barron v. Baltimore (1833) that it was enforceable by the federal courts only against the federal government, and not against the states. However, in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, in large part to overturn that precedent, and the Supreme Court has used that Amendment, together with enabling congressional legislation, to apply some, but not all, provisions of the Bill of Rights against the states through what is called selective incorporation, thereby enabling a citizen to sue the citizen's own state in federal court (see sovereign immunity). Since 1938, when the Supreme Court wrote its famous footnote four, the proper application of the Bill of Rights has been an increasingly contentious issue. Barron v. ... Amendment XIV in the National Archives The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (Amendment XIV) is one of the post-Civil War amendments, intended to secure rights for former slaves. ... Incorporation of the Bill of Rights is the legal doctrine by which portions of the U.S. Bill of Rights are applied to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. ... Sovereign immunity or crown immunity is a type of immunity that, in common law jurisdictions traces its origins from early English law. ... Footnote four is a famous footnote from a U.S. Supreme Court case, United States v. ...

Robert Bork, sometimes styled an "originalist", has likened the Ninth Amendment to an inkblot. Bork argued in The Tempting of America that, while the amendment clearly had some meaning, its meaning is indeterminate; because the language is opaque, its meaning is as irretrievable as it would be had the words been covered by an inkblot. According to Bork, if another provision of the Constitution were covered by an actual inkblot, judges should not be permitted to make up what might be under the inkblot lest any judges twist the meaning to their own ends (cf. underdeterminacy). Robert Bork Robert Heron Bork (born March 1, 1927 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a conservative American legal scholar who advocates the judicial philosophy of originalism. ... Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, by Howard Chandler Christy. ... In American law, underdeterminacy is a concept particularly relevant to originalism. ...

Originalist Randy Barnett has argued that the Ninth Amendment requires what he calls a presumption of liberty. Other originalists, such as Thomas B. McAffee, have argued that the Ninth Amendment protects the unenumerated "residuum" of rights which the federal government was never empowered to violate.^[7] Constitutional historian Jon Roland has argued,^[8] that the Ninth Amendment included by reference all of the rights proposed by the state ratifying conventions, in addition to those enumerated in the first eight amendments. Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, by Howard Chandler Christy. ... Randy Barnett Randy E. Barnett (born February 5, 1952) is a lawyer, a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and a legal theorist in the United States. ... Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty is a book on the US constitution by Randy Barnett, where he outlines his theory of constitutional legitimacy, interpretation and construction. ...

Gun rights activists in recent decades have sometimes argued for a fundamental natural right to keep and bear arms that both predates the U.S. Constitution and is covered by the Constitution's Ninth Amendment; according to this viewpoint, the Second Amendment protects only a pre-existing right to keep and bear arms.^[9] In the related case of United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995), the Supreme Court held that while Congress has broad lawmaking authority under the Commerce Clause, it is not unlimited, and does not apply to something as far from commerce as carrying handguns. Gun politics fundamentally involves the politics of two related questions: Does a government have valid authority to impose regulations on guns? And, assuming such authority, should a government regulate guns?[1] The answer to these questions and the nature of the politics varies and depends on the national and local... The Bill of Rights in the National Archives Amendment II (the Second Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, declares the necessity for a well regulated militia, and prohibits infringement of the right of the people to keep and bear arms. ... Holding Possession of a gun near a school is not an economic activity that has a substantial effect on interstate commerce. ...

The Ninth Amendment bars denial of unenumerated rights if the denial is based on the enumeration of certain rights in the Constitution, but does not bar denial of unenumerated rights if the denial is based on the enumeration of certain powers in the Constitution. It is to that enumeration of powers that the courts have said we must look, in order to determine the extent of the unenumerated rights mentioned in the Ninth Amendment.^[10]

Footnotes

1. ^ James Madison, Letter to Thomas Jefferson (October 17, 1788). Madison often expressed this idea, for example in a letter to George Washingtonon December 5, 1789 ("If a line can be drawn between the powers granted and the rights retained, it would seem to be the same thing, whether the latter be secured by declaring that they shall not be abridged, or that the former shall not be extended").
2. ^ Virginia Ratification Resolution (June 26, 1788)
3. ^ James Madison,Speech Introducing Bill of Rights (June 8, 1789)
4. ^ Roe v. Wade, 314 F. Supp. 1217 (1970).
5. ^ Laurence H. Tribe, American Constitutional Law 776 n. 14 (2nd ed. 1998).
6. ^ Bernard Bailyn, Remarks at White House Millennium Evening (2000).
7. ^ Thomas B. McAffee, Federalism and the Protection of Rights: The Modern Ninth Amendment's Spreading Confusion, 1996 B.Y.U. Law Rev. 351
8. ^ Jon Roland, Presumption of Nonauthority and Unenumerated Rights (2006)
9. ^ Nicholas Johnson, Beyond the Second Amendment: An Individual Right to Arms Viewed Through The Ninth Amendment, 24 Rutgers L.J. 1, 64-67 (1992)
10. ^ United Public Workers v. Mitchell, 330 U.S. 75 (1947)

External links

• A Textual-Historical Theory of the Ninth Amendment by Kurt Lash (2007)
• The Ninth Amendment: It Means What It Says by Randy Barnett (2006)
• CRS Annotated Constitution: 9th Amendment by the Congressional Research Service (2000)
• The Lost Original Meaning of the Ninth Amendment by Kurt Lash (2004)
• The Lost Jurisprudence of the Ninth Amendment by Kurt Lash (2005)
• Rights, the Constitution, and the Ninth Amendment by Tibor R. Machan (2005)
• Proposed Amendments to the Constitution by James Madison (1789)
• Federalism and the Protection of Rights: The Modern Ninth Amendment’s Spreading Confusion by Thomas B. McAfee (1996)
• Documentary History of the Bill of Rights -- Compilation of documents