Knowledge Bank

The Ninth Amendment played an important role in the founding of our nation, but it has long been forgotten and misunderstood. In the last decade, however, scholars have begun to reexamine the history of the Ninth Amendment to determine its original meaning. Ninth Amendment scholarship has primarily been driven by a new debate between Kurt Lash and Randy Barnett. This thesis examines that debate. After concluding that Lash's "federalism" model of the Ninth Amendment is more historically accurate, it explores the "federalism" model's applicability to modern Ninth Amendment jurisprudence, how it relates to the "right to privacy," and the role of originalism in the Ninth Amendment debate.