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On 4/6/2012 12:07 PM, Warp wrote:
> Could someone explain to me in plain terms what the 9th amendment to the
> United States constitution means?
>
> Wikipedia has a wall of text about it, but it's a bit difficult to
> understand the gist of it.
>
It's been a while, but if I remember correctly it's saying that just
because *some* rights are listed in the constitution doesn't should not
be taken to mean that these are the *only* rights afforded under it.
This is done to invalidate arguments of the following sort:
"If there were a right to privacy it would have been listed in the
constitution. Since it's not listed, there's no such right afforded to
the people."
At least that's what I recall. I also don't know what the modern
interpretation of this amendment is, although since you brought it up I
guess it's time to read up and find out.
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On 4/6/2012 2:07 PM, Warp wrote:
> Could someone explain to me in plain terms what the 9th amendment to the
> United States constitution means?
>
> Wikipedia has a wall of text about it, but it's a bit difficult to
> understand the gist of it.
Our constitution mentions a number of rights. The Ninth Amendment in
theory means that a right cannot be denied merely because it is not
mentioned.
For instance, let us say that a local government decided to ban
gambling. In the course of events someone will eventually be caught
breaking the law and be brought to trial. The defendant can argue that
the law is a violation of his rights. What the ninth amendment does is
state that the prosecutor cannot rebut this argument by stating that
since such a right is not listed in the Constitution, it therefore does
not exist. he may be able to establish that it is not a right by some
other vein logic, but he cannot rest his case on the fact that such a
right is not mentioned in the Constitution.
This also does not establish that gambling is a right, but only that the
lack of mention does not prove that it is not a right.
That's the theory.
In practice, the Ninth Amendment means whatever the Supreme Court says
it means. Just like the rest of the Constitution.
John
(who has been away a while and is catching up on old posts.)
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