As we head into tomorrow’s election, I finish my brief Civics Refresher Course with five more questions from the Naturalization Test given by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.
1. What stops one branch of government from becoming too powerful? (Two officially acceptable answers)
2. Under the U.S. Constitution, some powers belong to the states. Name one. (At least five officially acceptable answers)
3. When was the Constitution written?
4. Name four of the wars fought by the United States in the 1800s. (The test asks for one of four wars; there are others).
5. What is the supreme law of the land?
Whether you have done well or poorly, I hope this series has spurred a little more curiosity about our fundamental rights under the American Constitution and the history behind those rights.
Now, for the last two of the Amendments in the Bill of Rights. Although most people would be hard-pressed to name or describe them, both are fundamental to individual rights and our system of government.
Amendment Nine
Establishes the rule of the construction of the Constitution.
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
This amendment is at the heart of the Constitution, and it is based on the idea that all human beings have certain fundamental rights. Some of these rights are specifically mentioned (“enumerated”) in the Constitution, but others are not. Alexander Hamilton and James Madison responded to criticism that the Bill of Rights was flawed because it listed certain rights that gave specific protections, but left the government free to act on any that had not been specifically set down. To protect those rights, including those that were expressed in the Declaration of Independence as “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” this amendment covers fundamental rights not set forth in the Constitution.
Still controversial and debated, this interpretation of the ninth Amendment is at the heart of the debate over the right of privacy. That concept, never specifically mentioned in the Constitution, was first established in 1965 by the Supreme Court in Griswold v Connecticut, a case involving Connecticut’s ban on the use of contraceptive devices, and added to in several later cases. But most people know it as the underpinning of what is still the most controversial and divisive ruling in recent history, Roe v. Wade (1973), which legalized abortion. The Court also recognized that a woman’s right to choose contraception or abortion is “central to personal dignity and autonomy.”
Amendment Ten
Lays out the rights of states under the Constitution.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
This amendment was a sort of additional “fail safe” designed to allay fears that a central national government might someday exceed its proper powers. It has been the cornerstone of the states’ rights philosophy, but does not diminish or add to the authority of the federal government.
The Cornell University Law School offers an annotated guide to the Tenth Amendment and the rest of the Constitution.
Pop Quiz Answers
1. The system of checks and balances; the separation of powers
2. Provide schooling and education; provide protection (police, state militias); provide safety (fire departments and state militias); give a driver’s license; approve zoning and land use.
3. 1787
4. The four wars listed in the Naturalization exam are the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War and the Spanish-American War. This list does not include any of the wars fought against Native-American nations such as the Creek War or the Seminole War, among others.
5. The U.S. Constitution
