What does the 9th Amendment mean?

[Associate Justice PiT]

the bill of rights is a safeguard of the rights of the people, it is not their source. is not an exhaustive list of the rights retained by the people. if you read it in conjunction with the tenth amendment, it makes sense.

What I'm getting at is that this, put together with the Fourteenth Amendment, really belies claims that there isn't a right to privacy in the Constitution, that there isn't a right to marry in the Constitution, etc.

     Or rather, those rights may not be in the Constitution, but people nevertheless possess them.

[Associate Justice PiT]

the bill of rights is a safeguard of the rights of the people, it is not their source. is not an exhaustive list of the rights retained by the people. if you read it in conjunction with the tenth amendment, it makes sense.

What I'm getting at is that this, put together with the Fourteenth Amendment, really belies claims that there isn't a right to privacy in the Constitution, that there isn't a right to marry in the Constitution, etc.

     Or rather, those rights may not be in the Constitution, but people nevertheless possess them.

Or that those rights may not be specifically mentioned, but bubble terms imply them?

     They don't have to be implied, even. There are rights that are established by statute. The text of the Ninth Amendment seems to me to just be saying that something doesn't have to pop up in the text of the Constitution for people to be able to claim it as a right.

[Associate Justice PiT]

We could be like the Roman Republic, and rely solely on precedent and whatnot. 

Or, you know, like the United Kingdom, which is the same way.

     Not a system I would rather like to emulate, given the tendency of politicians through the ages towards incredible abuses of power.