Most educated people of the eighteenth century, such as the Founding Fathers, subscribed to Natural Rights Theory, the idea that every human being has a considerable number of innate rights, simply by virtue of being a human person. When the US Constitution was sent to the states for ratification, many at that time felt that the federal government outlined by the Constitution would be too strong, and that rights of individual citizens against the government had to be clarified. This led to the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments, which were ratified at the same time as the Constitution. The first eight of these amendments list specific rights of citizens. Some leaders feared that listing some rights could be interpreted to mean that citizens didn't have other, unlisted rights. Toward this end, James Madison and others produced the Ninth Amendment, which states: the fact that certain rights are listed in the Constitution shall not be construed to imply that other rights of the people are denied
Constitutional traditionalists interpret the Ninth Amendment as a rule for reading the rest of the constitution. They would argue that "Ninth Amendment rights" are a misconceived notion: the amendment does not, by itself, create federally enforceable rights. In particular, this strict reasoning would be opposed to the creation of any new rights based on the amendment. Rather, according to this view, the amendment merely protects those rights that citizens already have, whether they are explicitly listed in the Constitution or simply implicit in people's lives and in American tradition.
More liberal interpreters of the US Constitution have a much more expansive view of the Ninth Amendment. In their view, the Ninth Amendment guarantees to American citizens a vast universe of potential rights, some of which we have enjoyed for two centuries, and others that the Founding Fathers could not possibly have conceived. These scholars point out that some rights, such as voting rights of women or minorities, were not necessarily viewed as rights by the majority of citizens in late eighteenth century America, but are taken as fundamental and unquestionable in modern America. While those rights cited are protected specifically by other amendments and laws, the argument asserts that other unlisted right also could evolve from unthinkable to perfectly acceptable, and the Ninth Amendment would protect these as-yet-undefined rights.
THE QUESTIONS:
1) The author cites the scholars referring to "voting rights of women or minorities" in order to
(A) cite unquestionably justified Ninth Amendment rights
(B) demonstrate how changing priorities can alter perspectives on fundamental human rights
(C) argue for the modern extension of Natural Rights Theory
(D) refute the traditionalist interpretation of the Ninth Amendment
(E) champion the rights of all citizens in the democratic process
2) Constitutional scholars of both the traditionalist and liberal views would agree that "Ninth Amendment rights"
(A) accommodate shifts in cultural values with respect to issues affecting human rights
(B) cannot serve as the basis of legal decisions
(C) are directly reflected in our understanding of who can and can't vote
(D) are not stated explicitly in the Bill of Rights
(E) extend the idea of Natural Rights Theory
3) According to the passage, what would the Ninth Amendment imply about a right to "a trial by jury", guaranteed in the Seventh Amendment of the US Constitution?
(A) The Ninth Amendment would provide direct support for this right.
(B) The Ninth Amendment would not support this right directly, but would support all the logistics that would allow citizens to exercise this right.
(C) The Ninth Amendment would apply to trials that fall outside the jurisdiction of Federal Courts.
(D) The Ninth Amendment would apply to all trials that do not involve Constitutional Law
(E) The Ninth Amendment is irrelevant to any right mentioned explicitly in the Bill of Rights.
4) In the view of James Madison and the other Founding Fathers, the Ninth Amendment limits the power of the central Federal government by
(A) preventing constitutionally listed rights from being viewed as exhaustive
(B) giving the citizens rights in every area not explicitly addressed by the law
(C) codifying a vast universe of federally enforceable rights
(D) guaranteeing, in the text of US Constitution, all rights held by Natural Rights Theory
(E) ensuring all citizens are able to vote and, thus, choose the democratic leaders
5) The primary purpose of the passage is to
(A) clarify the most proper interpretation of an amendment
(B) argue for a broader perspective on human rights and their legal protection
(C) contrast historical perspectives of an amendment to its modern legal reading
(D) explain the motivation for an amendment and the ambiguity this amendment presents
(E) demonstrate how the Founding Fathers' intentions have been distorted by subsequent legal proceedings.
For OA and OE, see:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-readi ... questions/
Mike
