Baby Ninth Amendments

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Baby Ninth Amendments

A Conversation with Anthony Sanders

Robert Tracinski

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Anthony Sanders

May 15, 2023

I talk with Anthony Sanders of the Institute for Justice about his book Baby Ninth Amendments: How Americans Embraced Unenumerated Rights and Why It Matters.

We discuss the paradox of explicit constitutional protections for "unenumerated rights," how those protections were embraced not just on the federal level but in state constitutions, why those rights have often been ignored despite being popular, and the concept of "judicial engagement" as an alternative to "judicial activism" and "judicial restraint."

Buy the book here, or get a free download.

Watch the video of our conversation here.

For more on unenumerated rights, see my analysis elsewhere of the Dobbs decision.

The Tracinski Letter

The "Originalism" Bait-and-Switch

A conservative majority on the Supreme Court appears to be poised to strike down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that guaranteed a right to abortion. This will undoubtedly unleash—indeed, it already has unleashed—a political battle royale in which state legislatures and Congress rush to pass either new restrictions on abortion or new protections for it…

2 years ago · 22 likes · 2 comments · Robert Tracinski

And also check out a previous Symposium podcast on unenumerated rights.

18th-Century Infallibility Theory

Robert Tracinski

June 9, 2022

Listen now (54 min) | The leaked draft of a forthcoming Supreme Court ruling in the abortion case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization raises questions about the “unenumerated rights” protected in the Ninth Amendment. I discussed this recently with David French and Ilya Shapiro, talking about why the Constitution protects unenumerated rights and how we would tell what…

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