Scholars call it the forgotten amendment, and Bill Norton argues the standard reading gets it backwards. The Ninth Amendment was written before the Bill of Rights existed, so when it says "enumerated in the Constitution," it means the whole Constitution. James Madison put it plainly to George Washington: protecting rights and limiting powers are two sides of the same coin. Stretch a power the government was never given, and you have taken a right.
This is the bonus conversation that closes out the four-lesson founding principles series with Jenny Beth Martin. Norton walks through the jury as the last check on tyranny, the consent principle buried in the Third Amendment, why the founders abandoned religious tolerance for freedom of conscience, and what James Madison's most misquoted letter actually says about an Article Five convention.
Guest: Bill Norton, constitutional scholar and author of Behind the Bill of Rights, co-authored with Jeremy Nelson of the National Center for Constitutional Studies, with Behind the Declaration of Independence and Behind the Constitution of the United States to follow.
Today's topics:
The Ninth Amendment, called the forgotten amendment, and why the Supreme Court has cited it only a handful of times
Why the Ninth was originally numbered the Eleventh, and how two failed amendments shift every number in the founders' letters
The rarely read preamble to the Bill of Rights and the phrase "misconstruction or abuse of its powers"
The natural law principle behind the Second Amendment, which Bill Norton says is simply the right of self preservation
Why English law once required you to own a longbow and be trained on it
Freedom of conscience versus religious tolerance, and why Thomas Paine and George Washington called tolerance a condescending idea
The paradox of tolerance, and Bill Norton's answer to it
John Adams on why mixing religion and government corrupts both, and why Bill Norton says the church tax exemption silences pastors
The trial of William Penn, the jury held without food or sleep, and the not guilty verdict no judge could overturn
Jury nullification, what it actually does, and why a judge can overturn a guilty verdict but never an acquittal
The Third Amendment's single court case and the consent principle it teaches
How Arizona's governor cited the wrong constitutional sections during the pandemic lockdowns, and the pre-consent laws that were ignored
Jenny Beth Martin on leading the fight to reopen America's schools, and why the reaction to the virus frightened her more than the virus
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act debate and Representative Andy Biggs on on-call judges for warrants
Jenny Beth Martin's call for Senator John Thune and the full Senate to move the SAVE America Act, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, the bill requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote
George Mason, Patrick Henry, and the ratification fight James Madison had to win at home
What James Madison's letter about a new convention really says, and why Bill Norton says Article Five groups misquote it
The Jenny Beth Show airs live Monday through Friday at 1:00 PM ET. Hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party movement and Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action. Subscribe for daily analysis of politics, policy, and the fight for constitutionally limited government. teapartypatriots.org
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