Does the Constitution Really Promise Privacy?

The U.S. Constitution never specifically says that citizens have a right to privacy. Yet it does say they have rights that aren't specifically mentioned in the Constitution--and the Supreme Court has ruled that privacy is among them.

How can the Constitution protect rights it never names? Well, the framers were clever fellows. They realized people might read an enumerated list--like, say, the Bill of Rights--and assume the list was supposed to be exhaustive. So, to make sure their list wasn't read that way, they wrote a rule against doing so and added it to the list. That rule is the Constitution's Ninth Amendment.

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