It is Bill of Rights Day. Let's Fight for the Ninth Amendment!
On this Bill of Rights Day 2025, when much of the conversation in the library sector understandably centers on the First Amendment and its protections, it is worth pausing to reflect on a different part of the Constitution, one that rarely receives attention but speaks directly to the lived experience of libraries in America.
The Ninth Amendment, with its simple acknowledgement that the people hold rights beyond those specified in the rest of the Constitution, provides a powerful framework for understanding why Americans establish public libraries wherever towns, cities, and counties take root.
“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
- Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution
- Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Here at EveryLibrary, we would argue that libraries are one of the clearest expressions of our Ninth Amendment rights. Wherever people gather into communities, libraries appear. It is because the act of reading, learning, and sharing knowledge is so fundamental to who we are as a self-governing people that we keep opening libraries, even in the 21st Century. Reading is a private act that is also a public good. It is a hope for a public good that is at the heart of the Ninth.
The idea that a civic impulse to open libraries exists beyond the Constitution does not minimize the impact or importance of the First Amendment. In fact, EveryLibrary does a tremendous amount of work to protect those rights. Through our Fight For The First platform, we defend the First Amendment’s five freedoms - speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition - because they are constitutional pillars for how libraries function in society. We have helped prevent or reverse book bans in over 150 schools and public libraries by leaning into those rights.
Our work on the First Amendment has taken on new urgency with the Supreme Court refusing to review the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in Little v. Llano County. Leaving the 5th Circuit’s opinion in place effectively erodes First Amendment protections against the removal of public library books in Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The Supreme Court also appears to be expanding the Government Speech Doctrine to include the power of local politicians to decide what is allowed in public libraries. If we were able to make a Ninth Amendment argument to the originalist Justices on the court, we would remind them that the government is only the custodian of a public library. The people, through their tax dollars and civic will, own it and its contents. In our pluralistic republic, that library will have something to represent every American alongside something that will offend another American. It is not a defect of democracy; it is a feature.
Bill of Rights Day 2025 calls us to defend the freedoms that are under threat, but also to remember the rights that precede and transcend the Constitution itself. The Ninth Amendment puts the people, not the government, at the center of our civic life. That principle is reflected in every library built, every book placed on the shelf, and every reader welcomed through the door. The people’s rights do not evaporate because a politician, a special interest group, or a government agent attempts to redefine or reduce them. Our work now is to ensure that libraries remain institutions of the people, for the people, reflecting the full diversity of the nation they serve. That is what the Bill of Rights requires - from top to bottom. We intend to help every community continue to secure it.