Why we should remember the Constitution begins 'We the People' not 'We the States'
Richard Werking
Opinion Contributor
The issue of abortion rights has generated some interesting Constitutional discussions in the public press.
Several months ago, in his draft Supreme Court opinion, Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote that “the Constitution makes no reference to abortion.”
Closer to home in Kentucky, the Courier Journal for Sunday Nov. 13 quotes a prominent state legislator as declaring similarly, “there is no right to abortion in the Kentucky Constitution.”
It’s worth reminding readers about the 9th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which is shorter even than the more famous second amendment about gun rights. Reflecting the initial opposition by James Madison (the so-called “father of the U.S. Constitution”) to any “Bill of Rights” because of the impossibility of listing all the rights that the people needed to have, the ninth amendment reads simply but powerfully: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
A second reminder. In 1787 the founders feared the parochialism and narrow vision of the state legislatures and therefore excluded them from the ratification process. Instead, the founders stipulated that the question of the newly drafted Constitution’s ratification would be decided by popularly elected special ratifying conventions in the states, not by the thirteen state legislatures, and so it was.
Recall that our Constitution begins with those famous three words, “We the People”, not “We the States.”
courier-journal.com |
