Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Amendment IX (the Ninth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, states:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

The Ninth Amendment explains that, while there are certain specific rights granted to the people in the Constitution, the rights listed therein are not to be interpreted as the only rights retained by the public. For example, the Constitution does not enumerate the right to eat, but it does not deny it either. The Ninth Amendment recognizes that such natural rights are retained by the people and cannot be abridged by the government.

Since footnote four, the proper application of the ninth amendment has been a contentious issue. Robert Bork famously likened it to a inkblot, saying judges were not permitted to make up what was under the inkblot. However, Randy Barnett has argued that the ninth amendment requires what he calls a presumption of liberty.