Why the Rights of the Declaration of Independence Belong in the Constitution

I will use this inaugural blog to express some thoughts on what will be a frequent topic of mine: human rights. In particular, I offer an obvious rationale why the rights of the Declaration of Independence ought to be included in the Constitution by way of the Ninth Amendment.

Before the American Constitution was ratified in 1788, there was resistance to ratification from Virginia, Massachusetts, and New York delegations as the proposed Constitution contained no declaration of fundamental rights. In order to gain ratification Federalist advocates promised a Bill of Rights, which was drafted primarily by James Madison and based on Virginia’s Declaration of Rights. The Bill of Rights passed Congress in 1789 and was submitted to the states for ratification. National ratification was secured by December 15, 1791.

The Ninth Amendment is unlike any other amendment in that its subject matter is about unstated rights. It was added due to the concern that the Bill of Rights would be interpreted to be the people’s only rights. The Ninth Amendment reads:

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

When I first read the 9th Amendment, the first question I had was: What are the other [retained] rights referred to in the Ninth Amendment? To answer that, I only had to ask one more question: What other rights were generally recognized and retained by Americans in 1791? The answer was easy. In 1791, there was only one highly revered national document, the Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of Independence declares certain rights to be “inalienable”, among them, the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It also refers to other fundamental goals of safety, equality, happiness, and governments “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” (which I interpret as the individual right to power).

The Declaration’s right to alter or abolish the form of government when government is destructive of its human rights goals is the only one of the Declaration’s eight rights to be mentioned directly, with restrictions, in the Constitution. Article V states the requirements for amending (altering or abolishing) the Constitution (form of government).

My position is that all of the rights of the Declaration should be incorporated into the Constitution based on the logic of the Ninth Amendment. That is not to say that reasonable minds will not differ over the meaning of such rights as the right to life, the pursuit of happiness, safety, and happiness. The significance of these rights will ultimately be decided by the laws and policies of government and decisions of the Supreme Court.

There is no simple process for incorporating human rights into the Constitution. Such a change will either take a Supreme Court decision to interpret the Constitution with a completely different perspective or a constitutional amendment. I would rather watch mountain ranges crumble than wait for the Supreme Court to recognize all of the rights of the Declaration of Independence. Nor, do I anticipate any movement from Congress. This is why the Constitution should be amended to add the rights of the Declaration of Independence.

Posted on 4th February at 4:23 pm

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