"One might construe it means there is a right to abortion, gay marriage, incest, unfettered drug use, or any number of other individual "personal rights" that 5 justices can agree to liberally construct, if PH's words are to be taken literally and liberally in this case"
It "means" that such things are left to the states or the people to decide. It's not Federal, in other words.
Bingo! Give that man a ceegar.
Stating the same intent, but not the same words, on another thread.
I agree, but when one applies "liberal constructionism" and then uses the 14th amendment to say the states can't deny these "liberally constructed" individual rights, you get rulings like Roe v Wade, and many other atrocities. All of a sudden, things that were rightly left to the states or the people to decide become constitutional rights (via liberal construction). Once you get 5 justices to construct a "right" out of thin air, the people and the states no longer have any say in deciding the matter.