The Ninth Amendment
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Source: The Constitution
Although this amendment does not have a specific right to incorporate, it has been used along with other amendments to extend the rights of the American public, especially through the establishment of the right to privacy.
The right to privacy was established by the Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965. Together with the first, third, and fourth amendments, this case established the right to privacy in marital relations (Wikipedia Ninth Amendment 1). Using this case as precedent and relying on the Due Process clause of the 14th amendment, the Supreme Court ruled that women had the right to an abortion in Roe v. Wade in 1973. The framers' intention for the ninth amendment was to prevent the federal government from any future limitation of the rights of the people. Essentially, ninth amendment existed to protect the unenumerated rights of the people. Since the incorporation of the Bill of Rights in 1925, many Americans have attempted to use the ninth amendment to further the rights of the people by arguing for new liberties such as gay rights, the right to die, and the right to choice. Without the incorporation doctrine, these new rights would not be possible because the issue of the right to privacy arose under state laws. In 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law against homosexual relationships, stating that the right was a human freedom. Homosexuals had a right to privacy (Wikipedia Lawrence v. Texas 1). |