Unenumerated Rights
9th Amendment to the United States Constitution
What does the Unenumerated Rights mean?
The Ninth Amendment establishes that the people retain rights beyond those specifically listed in the Constitution. It was included to counter the argument that a bill of rights would be dangerous because it might imply that unlisted rights were not protected.
Source: U.S. Const. amend. 9
Original Text
“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
Plain-English Explanation
The Ninth Amendment establishes that the people retain rights beyond those specifically listed in the Constitution. It was included to counter the argument that a bill of rights would be dangerous because it might imply that unlisted rights were not protected.
While the Ninth Amendment has rarely served as the sole basis for a Supreme Court decision, it has been cited to support the existence of unenumerated constitutional rights, most notably the right to privacy. Justice Goldberg's concurrence in Griswold v. Connecticut relied heavily on the Ninth Amendment to argue that the right to marital privacy is a fundamental right retained by the people.
Key Doctrines
Landmark Cases
Griswold v. Connecticut
(1965)Justice Goldberg's influential concurrence argued that the Ninth Amendment supports the recognition of fundamental rights not specifically enumerated in the Bill of Rights, including the right to marital privacy.
Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia
(1980)Justice Burger's plurality opinion cited the Ninth Amendment in recognizing a First Amendment right of public access to criminal trials, noting that the right to attend trials is implicit in the guarantees of the First Amendment.
Exam Relevance
The Ninth Amendment appears in discussions of unenumerated rights and the debate between originalism and living constitutionalism. Understand its role in Griswold v. Connecticut and the broader debate about whether and how courts should recognize rights not explicitly listed in the Constitution.
Modern Applications
- Ongoing debates about the constitutional basis for the right to privacy
- Arguments for recognizing new fundamental rights (e.g., right to a clean environment)
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