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An Overview of the 9th Amendment

An Overview of the 9th Amendment Ninth Amendment: Rights of the people that are not specifically enumerated in the United States Constitution.

What is the Ninth Amendment?

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

The Ninth Amendment Defined:

The Ninth Amendment is a part of the Bill of Rights, which are the first 10 Amendments to the United States Constitution and the framework to elucidate upon the freedoms of the individual. The Bill of Rights were proposed and sent to the states by the first session of the First Congress. They were later ratified on December 15, 1791.

The first 10 Amendments to the United States Constitution were introduced by James Madison as a series of legislative articles and came into effect as Constitutional Amendments following the process of ratification by three-fourths of the States on December 15, 1791.

Stipulations of the Ninth Amendment:

The Ninth Amendment is regarded by the court system of the United States as negating any expansion of government authority on account of the rights expressed in the United States Constitution. That being said, the Amendment is not regarded as further limiting governmental power.

Amendments one through eight of the United States Constitution address the limits and means by which the federal government can exercise its awarded powers, while the Ninth Amendment creates sediment of rights that are not awarded to the government. 

Supreme Court Cases tied into the 9th Amendment

In Barron v. Baltimore  the Supreme Court states that the provisions outlined in the Ninth Amendment were only enforceable by the federal court system against the federal government and not allowable against any state body. As a result, the Ninth Amendment is only applicable to the federal government, which by definition, is a government of enumerated powers. That being said, some jurists have viewed that the ninth Amendment is relevant for interpretation in regards to the Fourteenth Amendment. Some jurists believe that the Ninth Amendment was created to constitute an independent source of undeniable rights which are protected from infringement by either the States or the Federal Government. 

State Timeline for Ratification of the Bill of Rights

New Jersey:November 20, 1789; rejected article II

Maryland:December 19, 1789; approved all

North Carolina:December 22, 1789; approved all

South Carolina: January 19, 1790; approved all

New Hampshire: January 25, 1790; rejected article II

Delaware: January 28, 1790; rejected article I

New York: February 27, 1790; rejected article II

Pennsylvania: March 10, 1790; rejected article II

Rhode Island: June 7, 1790; rejected article II

Vermont: November 3, 1791; approved all

Virginia: December 15, 1791; approved all

Georgia, Massachusetts and Connecticut did not ratify the first 10 Amendments until 1939

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