Amendment+9+(3)

- When the Constitution was written at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 and submitted to the States for ratification, many people argued that the Constitution did not sufficiently protect the basic natural rights of the citizens. Natural rights are those rights that people have just because they are human. They are natural to mankind and should not be violated by the government.

- Rights retained by the people.

-Names certain rights in the constitution that does not take away from the people that are not listed.

-Has helped establish the right to privacy.

-The United States Supreme Court agreed in 2005/06 to hear the case of __Gonzales v. Oregon__, a federal challenge to Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law. The law was upheld last fall by the Ninth Circuit. In Oregon, a doctor may help a terminally ill patient die. This is an example of a state's right and responsibility to assure the health and welfare of its citizens. The feds are pressing an interpretation of the federal Controlled Substances Act that limits the use of such substances to "legitmate medical purpose." Doctors who help terminally ill patients die violate that act, said the Gov. Except, of course, when the Government wants to kill someone, in which case it is all right. "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." -the Ninth Amendment. It speaks of a government of limited powers, and of a free people yielding only so much authority over themselves as has been expressly granted. Just because only certain rights are referred to in the Bill of Rights does not mean that we have forfeited everything else to the State. The Oregon case is a perfect case to test the Ninth Amendment. It is obscene to be required to petition the Government for the right to die. It is the price Nature exacts for the joy of living. In a 6-3 opinion delivered by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Court held that Congress intended the CSA to prevent doctors only from engaging in illicit drug dealing, not to define general standards of state medical practice .

- The Founding Fathers realized that they could not possibly list every natural right of human beings that needed protection. Instead, they assigned certain powers to the government that were specifically spelled out in the Constitution, and said everything else is left up to individuals and to their state governments.

media type="file" key="9 Amendment.mp3"