PROTECTION AGAINST TYRANNY BY RETAINING ALL CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS AGAINST THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S UNJUSTIFIED KILLING OF CITIZENS

As I read the headlines about federal agents killing American citizens who were not threatening the federal agents, Eyewitnesses say Renee Good posed ‘no threat’ to ICE agents, https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/07/shooting-south-minneapolis-ice-agents-federal-operation and further recall that this is not the first time federal agents have shot  and injured or killed citizens, How Many People Have Been Shot in ICE Raids?, https://www.thetrace.org/2025/12/immigration-ice-shootings-guns-tracker/ and Full List of ICE Shootings Since Donald Trump Took Office, https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-of-ice-shootings-since-donald-trump-took-office-11325704?fbclid=IwY2xjawPM52JleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEedNk6qqYOq71958AAlXQzTwaz5i4012-UckVkz1yfdopEL72mtzzSz2-w8cA_aem_FxtF-zvn0ThG-yzhDjly1g it is frightening to me that the State of Minnesota is being barred by the federal government from conducting an investigation into the killing by a federal agent of a citizen.  MN investigators barred from taking part in probe into woman's killing by ICE officer, https://cbs2iowa.com/news/local/mn-investigators-barred-from-taking-part-in-probe-into-womans-killing-by-ice-officer .

So how should a citizen legally respond to the ultimate deprivation of liberty when shot by a federal agent?

A quick overview of the 9^th and 10^th Amendments is needed.  The Ninth Amendment ensures that listing specific rights in the Constitution doesn't mean people lack other rights, protecting unenumerated liberties like privacy; the Tenth Amendment reserves powers not given to the federal government, nor withheld from the states, to the states or the people, establishing federalism and limiting federal power to only those explicitly granted by the Constitution, acting as a foundational restraint on federal authority. Together, they reinforce that the government's power is limited and that fundamental rights extend beyond the text of the Bill of Rights.

These principles can support the argument against overly broad federal government laws and overreach, particularly regarding personal autonomy, privacy, and the killing of nonthreatening citizens. While not a direct shield like the Fifth or Sixth Amendments, the 9^th and 10^th Amendments serve as a foundational concept for arguing that certain fundamental liberties (like life, privacy or self-determination) should be protected, even if not expressly named. 

The Ninth Amendment has not received a lot of supreme Court attention.  Griswold v. Connecticut, 38 I U.S. 479, 490 n.6 (1965) (Justice Goldberg, concurring).  The blatantly offensive nature of Connecticut's intrusion into the personal lives of its citizens prompted the Court to find a right of privacy that could not be infringed by government without substantial justification.

How much more of a blatant governmental attack on a citizen’s privacy can there be than when the government kills the citizen without justification?  Such police action is repulsive and constitutes the ultimate attack on a citizen’s privacy.  Id. at 486 (law forbidding contraception in married couples bedroom is “repulsive to the notions of privacy.”  Allowing the state leeway to kill a citizen without justification is simply irreconcilable with a free, constitutional society and "congenial only to a totalitarian regime." Poe v. Ullman,367 U.S. 497, 522 (1961) (Justice Douglas dissenting)