Argues that the Supreme Court would do better to rely on the Ninth Amendment when addressing issues regarding fundamental rights, rather than depending on the Constitution's due process clause.

A collection of seminal writings on the history and meaning of the Ninth Amendment, reflecting a diverse cross-section of scholarly opinion. From the Introduction by Randy E. Barnett: I suggest that the failure to find a 'general right of freedom' in the Constitution is connected to a general inabi

Reproduction of the original: The Right to Privacy by Samuel D. Warren, Louis D. Brandeis

The Ninth Amendment, which guarantees individuals rights not specifically named within the Constitution or the other amendments, was written using vague, open-ended language to ensure no American citizen would be denied the many rights he or she retained that were not explicitly enumerated. Yet this vagueness has caused confusion and uncertainty even in the Supreme Court. Through full-color and black-and-white photos, engaging text, and primary sources, readers will learn why it was proposed and ratified, how it has been interpreted in several landmark Supreme Court cases, and how it has impacted society through such issues as labor activities, fair housing laws, and privacy. Sidebars, a glossary, and further reading are also included.

This book is an introduction to the Ninth Amendment which empowers the people as it guarantees protection of unenumerated rights.

Citizenship as Foundation of Rights explains what it means to have citizen rights and how national identification requirements undermine them.

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning scholar, a timely history of the constitutional changes that built equality into the nation’s foundation and how those guarantees have been shaken over time. The Declaration of Independence announced equality as an American ideal, but it took the Civil War and the subsequent adoption of three constitutional amendments to establish that ideal as American law. The Reconstruction amendments abolished slavery, guaranteed all persons due process and equal protection of the law, and equipped black men with the right to vote. They established the principle of birthright citizenship and guaranteed the privileges and immunities of all citizens. The federal government, not the states, was charged with enforcement, reversing the priority of the original Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In grafting the principle of equality onto the Constitution, these revolutionary changes marked the second founding of the United States. Eric Foner’s compact, insightful history traces the arc of these pivotal amendments from their dramatic origins in pre–Civil War mass meetings of African-American “colored citizens” and in Republican party politics to their virtual nullification in the late nineteenth century. A series of momentous decisions by the Supreme Court narrowed the rights guaranteed in the amendments, while the states actively undermined them. The Jim Crow system was the result. Again today there are serious political challenges to birthright citizenship, voting rights, due process, and equal protection of the law. Like all great works of history, this one informs our understanding of the present as well as the past: knowledge and vigilance are always necessary to secure our basic rights.