3rd Amendment

“No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”

What Does it Mean?

The Third Amendment of the Constitution places limits on the federal government's ability to force people to let soldiers stay in their private homes. The Supreme Court has never directly ruled on a case related to this amendment and has only mentioned it a few times in its opinions. Because of this, some legal experts view the Third Amendment as an example of a part of the Constitution that isn't used much anymore. However, when it was added to the Constitution, the Third Amendment was very important. It was based on the Founders' experiences with British soldiers before the American Revolution and England's history over many centuries.

Although the Third Amendment hasn't been used much for its original purpose, it gained a new significance in the later part of the 20th century. Courts and experts started referring to it as a protection for privacy and as a sign of Americans' long-standing resistance to military involvement in civilian matters.

Historical Background

The practice of making soldiers stay in people's homes, known as quartering, goes back a long time. Even in ancient Rome, territorial governors used it as a way to control and make money. In the 1600s in Britain, there were complaints against King Charles I for keeping a standing army and forcing people to let soldiers stay in their homes. The English Parliament tried to stop this by passing a law against quartering in 1679. A declaration of rights in 1689 also mentioned getting rid of the king because of his standing army and quartering practices.

Worries about standing armies and quartering also reached the American colonies. The rules against quartering in Britain didn't apply to the colonies, so it continued there. Even though the colonial governments tried to regulate quartering, the British Parliament only made rules for the colonies in 1765 with the Quartering Act. This act made the colonies provide barracks and supplies for soldiers or let them stay in certain places.

This law caused tension between the colonists and British soldiers, which contributed to conflicts like the Boston Massacre. In response to this, the British Parliament passed more laws, including another Quartering Act in 1774 that gave British officers more power to find housing for soldiers. As the colonists fought for their independence, their experiences with quartering influenced the Declaration of Independence, which listed quartering as one of the wrongs by King George III.

After becoming independent, some states added their own protections against quartering to their laws. However, the U.S. Constitution didn't have any rules about it at first. People debated whether to include it, and some states wanted it added as part of the Bill of Rights. Finally, the Third Amendment was created based on the idea that people shouldn't be forced to quarter soldiers in their homes, especially during peace.

Government Intrusion and the Third Amendment

The Third Amendment has hardly been taken to court. The Supreme Court hasn't directly talked about it, and only two lower federal courts have looked at it closely. This might be because the amendment is easy to understand. Justice Joseph Story, in his writings about the U.S. Constitution, said the Third Amendment is about protecting the idea that a person's home is like a castle and can't be invaded by government.

There aren't many Supreme Court cases that talk about the Third Amendment, but the ones that do support the idea that it's about protecting your privacy. In some cases about privacy rights, the Court mentioned the Third Amendment as one of the things that helps create a zone of privacy. It's like saying the Third Amendment adds to the idea that your personal space is protected from government interference.

In one case that looked closely at the Third Amendment, the Second Circuit federal appeals court talked about whether the State of New York broke the Third Amendment by making correction officers' homes into housing for the National Guard without asking them. The Second Circuit court said that the Third Amendment is there to protect your privacy, and it's also something that applies to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. But in that specific case, they didn't decide whether New York actually broke the Third Amendment because of other legal reasons.