Ward Churchill was fired tonight by the University of Colorado governing board. In 2005, Churchill said the 9/11 victims in the World Trade Center were “Little Eichmanns,” referring to Adolf Eichmann who helped carry out the Holocaust.

While the First Amendment prevents Churchill from being fired for those baseless comments, a subsequent investigation led to evidence that he fabricated or falsified his research and plagiarized the work of others.

In 2006, a university committee found Churchill guilty of academic misconduct, including plagiarism. This did not surprise me at all after I heard him give a speech where he lambasted the crowd for being ignorant about the 9th Amendment. With arrogant ignorant condescension, he said that the 9th Amendment supersedes the 1st Amendment preventing people from celebrating Columbus Day. Essentially, he said he had a right not to be offended. This was the first time in the history of the world that, that argument was made.

It is totally ridiculous. The 9th Amendment is the last vestige between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. It states, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” It certainly does not have the meaning that Churchill spouted.

James Madison and the Federalists argued that there was no need for the Bill of Rights. Madison asserted that Article I of the Constitution did not give the Federal Government the power to take away citizens' inalienable rights without due process. Moreover, Madison worried that adding a Bill of Rights would lead to people believing that those are the only rights afforded to citizens by the government. In Latin, this is called expressio unius. This was a pretty compelling argument.

Nevertheless, the Anti-Federalists still wanted to list the most important government limitations. They wanted the most important government restrictions so clear that nobody could be misled to support an expansion of government power.

Consequently, Amendments 1-8 were created, and the 9th Amendment was the compromise Amendment. It is just an "ink blotter," as Robert Bork has been known to say. It simply addresses the fact that the Bill of Rights is not exclusive. But, to suggest, as Ward Churchill does, that the 9th Amendment gives him a right not to be offended by people celebrating Christopher Columbus is ludicrous.

Well, his own interpretation seemed to bite him this time. I have no doubt he would not have been investigated had he not made those comments about 9/11, thereby offending millions of people. So thank you Ward Churchill for bringing our attention to the 9th Amendment.


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