Unenumerated Rights

[minionofmidas]

Yes, but the ninth amendment does not add any right. It is merely a rule of construction.

What's the practical consequence of that valid point you're making, though?

Either you have all these unenumerated rights anyways, and the 9th just spells it out again so that every authoritarian gets the message,
or you have them thanks to the 9th and wouldn't have them otherwise.
Either way you end up with these rights, right?
(Let's leave the question of what rights we might be talking about out of the discussion here...)

[minionofmidas]

Yes, but the ninth amendment does not add any right. It is merely a rule of construction.

What's the practical consequence of that valid point you're making, though?

The Ninth Amendment is not a substantive source of constitutional guarantees or rights. One cannot accurately rely solely on the Ninth Amendment when arguing that has any particular right. For instance, the argument that "women have the right to abortions under the Ninth Amendment" is unsound. The Amendment is, as A18 points out, simply a "rule of construction."

So that argument just changes to "women have the right to abortion anyways, and the 9th makes sure it can't be taken away from them".
What have you gained? I'm seriously asking. (Also, notice that I'm not of the opinion that "women have the right to abortion anyways").

[minionofmidas]

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Obviously. Was that the whole point?

[minionofmidas]

Was that the whole point?

Consider an argument along the following lines: "The Constitution does not explicitly mention the right to an abortion. Therefore, you do not have the right to an abortion." The point of the Ninth Amendment was to ensure that such arguments would not be treated as valid.

Yes, I got that. It's okay.