Sanders on Baby Ninth Amendments and Unenumerated Individual Rights in State Constitutions Before the Civil War

Anthony B. Sanders, Institute for Justice, is publishing Baby Ninth Amendments and Unenumerated Individual Rights in State Constitutions Before the Civil War in the Mercer Law Review. Here is the abstract.

Although there is controversy on the original meaning of the Ninth Amendment, there should be no controversy on the original meaning of Ninth Amendment analogs in state constitutions, otherwise known as the “Baby Ninths.” This Article examines the history of the states’ adoption of Baby Ninths before the Civil War. It includes an analysis of the parallel history of what I call “Baby Tenths,” state constitutional provisions exempting state bills of rights out of the power of government. From these, and other, sources I demonstrate that Baby Ninths only make sense as judicially enforceable provisions that protect unenumerated individual rights.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

The Lincoln Legend

John Blake of CNN reviews (and critiques) Steven Spielberg's new film "Lincoln," and suggests that the Spielberg Lincoln is not as accurate or as complex as the PBS Lincoln available in a three-part documentary which begins airing tonight. In part, says Mr. Blake, the documentary points out that Harriet Beecher Stowe, not President Lincoln, had a great part in persuading people that slavery was immoral, via her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Further, what fueled the enduring attraction of slavery in the South was not just twisted moral thinking on the part of its defenders, but its economic foundation. He discusses more reasons, more issues, here.