"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." -- Ninth Amendment
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." -- Tenth Amendment
The Ninth and Tenth Amendments, often disregarded, have unexpected relevance today. The Ninth Amendment, based on the idea of "pre-existing rights of nature", addressed the fears of some framers that a national government would threaten states' aspirations to become independent sovereign nations. At the least it was drafted to protect "the people" from national government overreach.
While the Ninth amendment is concerned with the people's rights, the Tenth Amendment reserves the people's power over government. And while we may question whether the distinction matters today, history does provide a distinction between expanding rights as opposed to limiting government power. That is the history recounted here by Robert McWhirter.
Written for the interested citizen, as well as the civics student, this lively account pulls over along the way to examine some surprising, and interesting, diversions into how the events and personalities surrounding these Amendments have appeared in literature, film, sports and popular culture.
This book was originally published as chapters nine and ten of Bills, Quills, and Stills: An Annotated, Illustrated, and Illuminated History of the Bill of Rights.
