Presuming Liberty

If you were hard pressed, I imagine you could name at least three or four of the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution.  It’s generally known that the First gives us freedom of speech, religion, and press, the Second guarantees ownership of firearms, the Fourth has something to do with not letting cops search your [stuff], and the Fifth is what we plead when we don’t wanna tell no one nothin’.  Some conservatives championing federalism could probably tell you a little bit about the Tenth.

Yet for some reason or another, we readily skip over the Ninth Amendment.  Succinctly written, it states, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”  In other words, as implied by Randy Barnett’s book on the matter, if it’s not mentioned in the Constitution or one of the amendments, presume liberty.

As many know, the U.S. Constitution was created by federalists like James Madison, Alexander

Patrick Henry: More "Tea Party" than
the original tea party

Hamilton, and John Jay to support the idea of a strong federal government at the expense of the states, while anti-federalists like Patrick Henry, George Mason, and Mercy Otis Warren sought to see the federal government simply be for basic protection of mostly sovereign states.  Federalists got their way, but the anti-federalists managed to at least earn a Bill of Rights to protect liberty.  Madison objected to enumerating these rights because the people should be left to assume that if the government doesn’t say it can do it, then it won’t do it.  The “trust us, we’re from the government” line started very early.

Basic U.S. history should teach us what a gift the Bill of Rights was to our country.  Whether it’s suspending a student for vulgar speech, disarming its citizens, or NSA snooping, the government and its agencies have been told to back off time and again.  Yet today both liberals and conservatives skip the true meaning of the Ninth Amendment: If the Constitution doesn’t mention it, assume you can.  So for conservatives, this means that if an individual wants to roll up a plant and smoke it, they can.  And for liberals, this means that if someone doesn’t want to participate in any aspect of an event they disagree with (namely a same sex wedding ceremony), they don’t have to.

The U.S. Constitution and its amendments are not a tool to bludgeon people to do or not to do what you wish.  It’s a safeguard for liberty, and within the United States of America, liberty should always be presumed.