The Third Amendment to the US Constitution
Quartering of Soldiers in Private Homes Forbidden
Jul 21, 2009
The Third Amendment to the US Constitution has been the subject of few court opinions in the nearly 220 years since it was adopted. In 1776, the issues addressed by the amendment were among the grievances against England’s King George in the Declaration of Independence.
The Quartering of English Soldiers in Colonial Homes
England had made a practice of lodging soldiers in the private homes of colonists. This was among the many Intolerable Acts leading to the Revolution. On this subject the Declaration of Independence describes King George’s actions as follows:
“He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;
For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states; …”
The colonial objection to having soldiers in their homes was significant and not forgotten when the Revolution ended and time to establish a new government arrived. During the ratification debates in 1788-89 there was much concern that the new Constitution did not contain specific protections for citizens from government abuse.
The Bill of Rights and the Third Amendment
As part of the ratification process, promises were made that the First Congress would offer amendments to incorporate such protections into the Constitution. As promised by James Madison and the Federalists, twelve amendments were proposed and ten were ratified. These ten became known as the Bill of Rights.
The Third Amendment to the Constitution is a member of the Bill of Rights and provides as follows:
“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.”
The Forgotten Third Amendment
The issue addressed by the Third Amendment was important enough to be in the Declaration of Independence as a reason for rev0lution and become part of the Bill of Rights. Unlike the rest of the Bill of Rights, it has never been the subject of a Supreme Court interpretation. Among the few significant reviews of the Third Amendment is by Tom Bell in the 1993 William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal.
In some respects The Third Amendment is the forgotten amendment of the Bill of Rights, and violated significantly in at least two instances. American troops were widely mandated to stay in civilian homes during the War of 1812 and the Civil War. These were apparent widespread and significant violations of the Third Amendment. No lasting litigation grew out of these violations, so the meaning of the Third Amendment was not clarified.
A Supreme Court Mention and One Case Opinion
The Third Amendment is mentioned in passing in Griswold v. Connecticut as part of the constitutional underpinning of the right to privacy. There is but a single case in the federal courts to address the Third Amendment directly, Engblom v. Carey.
In Engblom, New York prison officials staged a strike, were evicted from their residences at the prison facility and the residences were occupied by members of the National Guard. The court of appeals found this to be a violation of the Third Amendment as interfering with privacy rights.
Though little litigated and largely forgotten and sometimes ignored, the Third Amendment deserves its place in the Bill of Rights as addressing one of the reasons for the Revolution.
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