We have been covering the US Constitution line by line. When Republicans wave their paper props and parrot their vile machinations, we will be prepared to expose the lies. We have finished the main body of the Constitution. Now we continue with the Amendments. You can find the last article on the main body of the Constitution here. It has links to all the others. The text comes from The US Constitution. Previous articles in the Amendment series:
Article I
Articles II and III
Article IV
Article V
Article VI
Article VII
Article VIII
Article [IX]
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
How often do you hear the Republicans parrot, “The right to ________ is not in the Constitution, so you don’t have it.”? Recently I’ve heard it applied to privacy, integration, women’s reproductive rights, appeals, and more. The Ninth Amendment these Republicans lie. We have several rights that the Constitution does not enumerate. One is the right to the pursuit of happiness from the Declaration of Independence, although in my younger days, I was more inclined to interpret it as the happiness of pursuit.
Article [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.
The Tenth Amendment draws a line between Federal and State powers. It becomes controversial over federal funding. For example, the federal government may not dictate speed limits on Interstate highways. However they can offer funding for those highways, contingent on states accepting 55 MPH. NCLB was interesting, because the Republicans mandated the program under the threat of withdrawing funding states were already receiving. Then they cut the funding anyway. GOP secessionists claim that the Tenth gives them the right to secede. If it does, the first Republican put that notion to rest.
I shall try to put up a new article in this series almost every day. It will take some time to cover it all, but when we’re done, we shall be immune to the lies with which Republicans seek to undermine our freedoms.
7 Responses to “Constitutional Amendments: Articles IX and X”
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The Civil War defined the 10th amendment. Certain rights must be universal throughout the country. We cannot have discrimination according to each State’s laws.
The judicial process is slow, but once a case gets to the Supreme Court, then that decision becomes the law of the whole country.
Lincoln could have avoided the war, if he allowed certain States to have slavery, and not other States. In fact all he wanted was to stop the spread of slavery, not ban it from those States that already had slavery.
He understood that the Constitution must apply to all equally, no matter where (which State) they lived.
Setting speed limits should be a States business. If a woman can have an abortion, gays can marry, and other issues of personal rights, should be federally protected equally throughout the country.
Tom, I agree, It is the purview od the Supreme court to decide which unenumerated rights and powers fall at which level.
…GOP secessionists…
If you listen carefully, you can hear Lincoln spinning in his tomb.
These new Red America secessionists really need to watch their mouths and be careful what ideas they bring into the mainstream. I know its a real out there idea but lets say through the use of hacked electronic voting machines, fear tactics, and overwhelming corporate-people money they gain permanent control of the government. Blue America finally has enough and starts talking about breaking away, I seriously doubt they would remember for a second their own talk of secession.
Not for a minute. There was some talk of blue states joining Canada in 2004, but it was satirical and humorous. For just joking about it, we were called traitors.
But wait! Can’t we let Texas go! Please!!!!
States sovereign rights, My ass
Tim, that’s a great idea, but can you afford to pay for the wall to keep those, dirty, lazy, criminal, sub-human, Texans out? 😉