NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/talk/politics/guns/25596

Text File | 1992-12-22 | 2.9 KB | 68 lines

Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!destroyer!fmsrl7!lynx!nmsu.edu!opus!ataylor
From: [e-mail] (Nosy)
Subject: Re: The Ninth Not Dead Yet
In-Reply-To: [e-mail]'s message of 16 Dec 1992 19:37:07 GMT
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Organization: NMSU Computer Science
References: <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 20:29:38 GMT
Lines: 55

<In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (C. D. Tavares) writes:

<   Last week, there was a discussion about whether it was reasonable
<   for the Supreme Court to establish new civil rights out of whole
<   cloth.  I argued that the process was underwritten by the Ninth, but
<   someone else argued that the Court considered the Ninth dead, and
<   went through some convoluted "emanation of a penumbra" argument to
<   get to the same place.

    Not quite; it was pointed out to you that if you endorse
    Roe v. Wade as a "good" SC decision, you are endorsing
    the concept that the Constitution is whatever 5 Justices
    say it is on any given day.

<   On alt.politics.usa.constitution someone posted a small excerpt
<   from Roe v. Wade that restores some of my faith in the Court.  It
<   seems that the Ninth WAS used, at least partially, as justification
<   for the "right of privacy."  From Blackmun's majority opinion:

<   "The Constitution does not explicitly mention any right of
<    privacy.  In a line of decisions, however, the Court has recognized
<    that a right of personal privacy, or of a guarantee of certain areas
<    or zones of privacy, does exist under the Constitution.  In varying
<    contexts the Court or individual justices have indeed found at
<    least the roots of that right in the First Amendment, in the
<    Fourth and Fifth Amendments, in the penumbras of the Bill of
<    Rights, in the Ninth Amendment, or in the concept of liberty
<    guaranteed by the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment."
<   (Shapiro, Martin and Hobbs, Douglas S. : The Politics of
<    Constitutional Law, Winthrop Publishers, Cambridge, 1974, p.491)

    So, because Blackmun paid lip service in passing to
    the Ninth in 1973, you maintain it is alive in 1992?

    Ok, name the Justices who concurred with this decision
    that are still sitting on the Supreme Court.

    Next, name a decision since Roe that cited the 9th
    as a serious element of the argument.

    I'm sure that, when HHS Secretary Shalala declares
    that only "gun-free" homes are appropriate for children
    and orders gun owners with children to remove all guns
    or be charged with child abuse, or when the CDC declares
    all guns as "vectors of violence" and issues orders
    for all doctors to report such vectors to CDC, or
    when EPA declares all lead bullets to be "toxic waste"
    and requires anyone with ammunition to turn in their
    "waste" or face Federal charges.....

    the 9th will be a shield for us all....right?


    You betcha.