How do amendments preserve individual rights?

Answer 1

Outside the Bill of Rights, and just generally speaking, Constitutional amendments don't preserve individual rights. Two amendments specifically limit individual rights, one for the better (abolishing slavery) and the other out of a sense of moral superiority (Prohibition). The first 10 amendments, which not all preserve individual rights, are called the Bill of Rights because they outline "freedoms" that were not in written into the Constitution. By allowing for an amendment system, the founders allowed the Constitution to change as needed. In many ways, amendments are just a further specification of something already in the Constitution or redefining something ambiguous. An amendment exists, for instance, to limit the term a President can serve (to two); amendments exist that extend the right to vote to the former slaves and to women. Proposals to amend the Constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman would not preserve individual rights but rather take them away (like Prohibition for Alcoholic Beverages, and very much like the feeling of moral superiority the same authors of Prohibition had).

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Amendments often clarify specifically something that may or may not have been evident in the document before the amendment. The slavery amendments and the women sufferage clarify and remove any doubt that the document means that all people can vote . The Constitution said "We the people", there has been some debate over the years as to who "the people are". So an amendment can "preserve individual rights". Amendments are often enacted to clarify and remove any doubt about a question. For example, do disabled folks have the same rights as healthy people.