If a right is protected by the Constitution, even though the Constitution doesn't mention that right.......

Question

If a right is protected by the Constitution, even though the Constitution doesn't mention that right specifically, it is said to be under the _____ of constitutional protection.

A. penicillin

B. umbrella

C. penumbra

D. pendulum

Answer 1

shatnerpossum got it right.  Read the Tenth Amendment.

Answer 2

Tenth amendment. Absence of a right from the Bill of Rights doesn't mean it isn't a right. Did that make sense?

Answer 3

B. umbrella

Answer 4

My feeling is that if a right is not in the Constitution, then it is not protected by the Constitution!!!

The argument for Roe vs. Wade is the most convoluted piece of c**p I have ever read.

For that matter "unregulated" gun ownership is not in the Constitution either, though everybody seems to think it is.

Answer 5

C. Penumbra.

I've never heard that word in any other context except my constitutional law class.

The two posts above me are correct that the 10th amendment protects the states ability to protect individual rights, but it does not say that rights are affirmatively protected by the constitution regardless of what states say, which was the question.

Other terms for this: the protected rights are those that are "fundamental" or necessary for "the principal of ordered liberty". Basically its those rights without which our constitution wouldn't make sense or without which our democratic republic could not function.

Privacy is the most notable example.

EDIT: Bassdoc, I agree that Roe v. Wade was a convoluted piece of c**p. The Court reargued the decision much more sensibly in later cases. I agree with the results in Roe, but for the reasons from Planned Parenthood and other cases.

Answer 6

A. penicillin