3 ms·

Rights that are not backed by Law do not materially exist. That is why the Bill of Rights (and related documents in other countries) had to be written in the fi

• snowwrestler 11y ago
  The debate about the Bill of Rights went like this: For: Let's enumerate some rights, just in case future generations are stupidly literal about things and get confused because it's not all written down for them. Against: Bad idea! By writing some down, we might create the impression that those are the ONLY rights. For: Well then we'll make the 10th Amendment a catch-all, so it's crystal clear that rights exist beyond those we've enumerated so far. ------ So did the 10th Amendment work? It seems like probably not, since people so frequently refer to the Bill of Rights as proof that the Constitution "grants" rights--rather than the intended effect, which is that the Bill of Rights limits government power over rights that already (and always) exist.