How did the 14th and 9th Amendments further guarantee individual rights?

Answer 1

[per Answers.com]

The Ninth Amendment "provides that "[t]he enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." On its face, this provision seems to mean that a right is worthy of judicial protection even if it is not listed in the Constitution. To fail to protect these "other" unenumerated rights "retained by the people" in the same manner that we protect the enumerated rights would surely be to "disparage" them if not to "deny" their existence altogether.

"Others doubt that this is what the Ninth Amendment means. Some have argued that it expresses a mere "truism" that the government should not do what it is not supposed to do. Some have thought that the "retained" rights refer only to state http://www.answers.com/topic/common-law rights and state constitutional rights existing at the time of the framing. Unlike enumerated "constitutional" rights, these retained rights could be modified by simple legislation or state constitutional amendment without violating the Constitution."

Re: the Fourteenth Amendment, "In 1865-1866, southern states and localities enacted black Codes to regulate the status and conduct of the newly freed slaves. The codes deprived blacks of many basic rights accorded to whites.... The Fourteenth Amendment was proposed by Congress in 1866 and ratified by the states in 1868. It reflected Republican determination that southern states should not be readmitted to the Union and Congress without additional guarantees. Section 1 made all persons born within the nation citizens both of the United States and of the states where they resided (thereby reversing Scott) and prohibited states from abridging http://www.answers.com/topic/privileges-and-immunities or immunities of citizens of the United States and from depriving persons of due process of law or http://www.answers.com/topic/equal-protection-clause protection of the laws. Section 2 reduced the representation of any state that deprived a part of its male population of the right to http://www.answers.com/topic/right-to-vote-1, an indirect attempt to protect the voting rights of blacks."