Which of the following is a weakness of express rights?

Which of the following is a weakness of express rights?

• A. Only five rights protected
• B. They cover all possible rights
• C. They automatically expand with society
• D. They have no standing before the courts

Answer: (A)

Express rights are the rights written into the constitution and they stay fixed in number and content. Because they’re enumerated, they don’t automatically grow as society changes; any addition or expansion of rights requires a difficult constitutional amendment through a referendum. That makes their protection narrow, since important rights aren’t guaranteed unless they’re specifically listed. So the main weakness is that only five rights are protected. By contrast, express rights do have standing in the courts to challenge laws or actions that breach them, so saying there’s no standing isn’t accurate. They also don’t automatically expand with society, and they don’t cover every possible right, which is why the statement about there being only five rights protected captures the key drawback.

Express rights are the rights written into the constitution and they stay fixed in number and content. Because they’re enumerated, they don’t automatically grow as society changes; any addition or expansion of rights requires a difficult constitutional amendment through a referendum. That makes their protection narrow, since important rights aren’t guaranteed unless they’re specifically listed. So the main weakness is that only five rights are protected. By contrast, express rights do have standing in the courts to challenge laws or actions that breach them, so saying there’s no standing isn’t accurate. They also don’t automatically expand with society, and they don’t cover every possible right, which is why the statement about there being only five rights protected captures the key drawback.