The Ninth and Tenth Amendments

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, the historical record does provide a distinction between expanding rights as opposed to limiting government power. That is the story 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, discursions into how the events and personalities surrounding these Amendments have appeared in literature, film, sports and popular culture.

The book is part of a collection chronicling the origins, history, and interpretation, of the first ten Amendments to the Constitution to the Bill of Rights.