Parolee Kevorkian Seeks Seat in House

According to Free Press reporter Kathleen Gray…

…His goal is to raise awareness of the Ninth Amendment, which says rights spelled out in the Constitution do not diminish rights that aren’t specifically spelled out. “You can’t take my innate rights away from me without a fight,” he said.  That fight is more important than any scandal in the city of Detroit, Kevorkian said. He interprets the amendment as allowing an individual to do anything as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone, such as helping with an assisted suicide…

(See the complete article at http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080325/NEWS06/803250331)

Here is the text of the Ninth Amendment:

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

Here is what James Madison said about the Ninth Amendment:

It has been objected also against a bill of rights, that, by enumerating particular exceptions to the grant of power, it would disparage those rights which were not placed in that enumeration; and it might follow by implication, that those rights which were not singled out, were intended to be assigned into the hands of the General Government, and were consequently insecure. This is one of the most plausible arguments I have ever heard against the admission of a bill of rights into this system; but, I conceive, that it may be guarded against. I have attempted it, as gentlemen may see by turning to the last clause of the fourth resolution.

Mr. Kevorkian might want to do a little more reading on our Nation’s history and on the Constitution.  I’m quite confident that the Founders would never interpret the Ninth Amendment to guarantee the right to commit suicide or to stockpile marijuana at home.