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GOD-GIVEN RIGHTS ARE RETAINED
BY THE PEOPLE
The Ninth Amendment concerns rights not
specifically listed in the Bill of Rights and explains
that these rights are nonetheless retained by the
people.
Most legal scholars agree that the Ninth
Amendment does not itself confer rights. Rather,
wrote one constitutional expert, it is “a rule about
how to read the Constitution.” That is, just because
certain rights are not enumerated in the Bill of
Rights does not mean they don’t exist.
The Ninth Amendment stems from a debate about
the Bill of Rights itself. After the Revolutionary
War, people organized together to develop a new
system of government. While everyone seemed to
agree that the freedoms they had just fought so
hard to win needed enduring protections, there
was a lack of consensus when it came to
developing a system of laws that protected every
individual’s God-given freedoms, while at the
same time achieved security and order. There
were two vastly different schools of thought – one
group known as the Federalists favored delegating
expansive powers to a central or federal
government therefore limiting states’ rights and
endangering individual liberties. The other group,
the Anti-Federalists sought to limit the powers of
a central government and ensure sacred freedoms
and liberties were adequately protected against
the risk of tyranny and corrupt governments.
The Anti-Federalists were against ratifying the
Constitution without a Bill of Rights declaring
the fundamental rights owed to the citizens of the
new republic. The Federalists were opposed to
this. While reasonable minds may differ, the Bill of
Rights was ratified as part of our Constitution – and
continues to endure.
Unlike the first eight amendments, which prohibit
or restrict government action understood to abridge
rights of the individual, the Ninth Amendment
governs constitutional rights of the people that may
not have been enumerated specifically, but which
are inherent. With a keen, and first-hand,
understanding of government’s rapacious desire to
acquire more power, the Anti-Federalists reasoned
that a government in the future might claim that
God-given rights of the people did not exist if they
were not already guaranteed.
Limiting power of a central government ensured our sacred liberties.
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