Survey of the Bill of Rights: Articles 9 and 10
by Ron Beatty
ronbeatty@sbcglobal.net

Exclusive to TLE

Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X
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.

As with last week, I am combining two amendments, since both of them are similar, and very important. In fact, other than the First and Second Amendments, these two may be the most important amendments in the Bill of Rights.

What the Ninth Amendment says is that simply because a right is not mentioned in the Constitution, that does not mean that those are the only rights the people have. In fact, if you look at it, it says that those other rights are just as important as those mentioned in the Constitution.

The Tenth Amendment may be the single most important amendment in the Bill of Rights. Examine this one closely, friends. What it says is this: unless the Constitution specifically states that the federal government may do something, those actions and powers are reserved to the states and the people. Example: Public education. Nowhere in the Constitution is it mentioned that the federal government has the right to control or sponsor any type of education. Therefore, under the provisions of the Tenth Amendment, legally, at least, the federal government has no say in the education process. Even the most cursory reading of this, then, means that education is the sole resposibility of the family, or at the very highest level possible, the state government.

Summary

Only the stupidest politician, judge or lawyer can possibly construe any part of the Bill of Rights as pertaining to anything other than individual rights. Anyone who can honestly say that any part of the Bill of Rights means anything else is functionally unsane or delusional, at the least.

Sadly, far too many unsane people are being turned out by our present educational system. This is evident by the sheer numbers of those who call for restrictions on the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, since if they had been properly educated in the meaning and purposes of the above documents, it is impossible for them to hold the views they apparently do.

The Constitution and Bill of Rights are the documents which embody the social contract that defines our country. Just as in any contract, there must be a meeting of minds for that contract to be a valid, binding agreement. If this is not the case, the contract is null and void, especially if one party to the contract has altered or changed the contract unilaterally.

Our country is not a democracy. It was a constitutional republic, which means that the Constitution is the framework which must be followed, and that no politician, or any whim of the majority may be used to violate that basic document. Our Founding Fathers hated and feared democracy, and rightly so, since under that system, if 51 people out of a hundred voted for any particular issue, the other 49 are denied their right to decide for themselves.

Every single politician, every elected official, every police officer, every member of the military takes an oath to 'support and defend the Constitution of the United States.' Not the government, not the person who occupies any particular office, the document and the principles embodied within it. If they truly take that oath seriously, and they should, since they supposedly swear it before the god they worship, then every single one of them should be horrified at the actions of the various politicians, especially in Washington, D.C. In particular, they should be horrified at the actions of those who propose and/or vote for laws that are in direct violation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. What action they should take is up to them, and their concience.

As always, I urge each and every one of you to do the research. Look at the writings of the Founding Fathers, see what their intention was in the writing of the various amendments and the Constitution itself. Look at the history of the Constitutional Convention. It is easy enough to find on the web, even though it is never covered in public school, at least not in sufficient detail. Again, never, ever take my unsupported word for anything, and still less the word of any government or media outlet.

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