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The Third AmendmentThe Third Amendment to the United States Constitution reads like this:"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."
This law was extremely important to our Founding Fathers, but is not so well known to modern Americans. America's Founders had just experienced the quartering of troops in their homes during the Revolutionary War and before. The Third Amendment says that troops cannot be quartered in homes at all during peacetime, and only as prescribed by law during wartime. By the way, in case you aren't sure what "quartering" is referring to, it means that the government cannot "quarter" troops in your home. The word is used in the way that we today would call someone's room his "quarters." Got it? Third Amendment History
Secondly, English law forbade the presence of a standing army, without consent of the people, in preference to a citizen army. Standing armies were viewed as threats to freedom. So, the colonists rightly viewed the presence of a standing army without their consent in their midst as a threat to their freedom. Both of these rights, freedom from taxation without consent and freedom from standing armies without consent, were guaranteed in English law since the English Bill of Rights of 1689. You can read the English Bill of Rights of 1689 here. Third Amendment history - The First Quartering ActThe first Quartering Act was enacted on May 15, 1765. It required that British soldiers be housed in American barracks and public inns first, but if there was not enough room in these, that other buildings belonging to the citizenry such as stables, alehouses, barns and uninhabited buildings should be used. The Quartering Act required that the citizens who owned the properties must pay for the food for these troops and also stated that the citizens would not receive any compensation for the use of their property. You can read the Quartering Act of 1765 here.The colonies generally refused to cooperate with the Quartering Act. The resistance was strongest in New York. Violence broke out in August, 1766 between British troops and the colonists over New York's refusal to pay for the quartering of British troops. Parliament suspended the governor and the provincial assembly over this issue. Eventually, the Quartering Act expired in 1770 and was not renewed. It never was successful in its intent to cover the expenses of keeping British troops permanently in America. Third Amendment history - The Second Quartering ActOn June 2, 1774, an additional Quartering Act was passed by Parliament that was part of a series of acts called the Intolerable Acts by the colonists. This act gave colonial Royal governors the right to house troops in private property (though not in occupied homes) if enough public property was not available. The colonists rejected the use of their private property without their consent, but, of all the Intolerable Acts, this one generated the least dissent. This Quartering Act expired on March 24, 1776. You can read the Quartering Act of 1774 here.The quartering of troops on private property is one of the grievances of the colonists specifically mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. The section that mentions it reads like this: "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." Creation of the Third AmendmentAs a result of this experience with having their private property used by the government without their permission, early Americans wanted a guarantee that they would be protected from this abuse in the future.Many people were skeptical that the new Constitution adequately protected their rights and they demanded that a Bill of Rights be added to it. Consequently, James Madison proposed a list of amendments to be considered by the First Congress. The Ten Amendments that were agreed upon, including the 34d Amendment, finally became law on December 15, 1791 and are known as the Bill of Rights. You can read more about the History of the Bill of Rights here. Third Amendment cases
The only significant case involving the Third Amendment to be addressed by any court was called Engblom vs. Carey, which was decided in 1982. In this case, several prison officials were evicted from their homes on the prison grounds during a strike. National Guard members had been brought in to act as prison guards during the strike. Some of them were housed in the homes of the missing officials. The officials sued claiming that the Third Amendment protected them from having military personnel living in their homes. The state's position was that the officials did not own the homes and were therefore not the private property of these officials, and that the Third Amendment could not, therefore, be applied to them. The officials lost their case originally on the grounds that they were not the owners of the homes, but on appeal, the 2nd Circuit Court agreed with them that their Third Amendment rights had been violated, saying that they had a reasonable right to expect their Third Amendment rights to be protected since they were the current occupants and controllers of the property. If you would like to read a very lengthy and in depth article about the history of the Third Amendment, please click here. Thanks for
reading about the Third Amendment with Revolutionary War and Beyond! If you would like to read about the meanings of each amendment, go to the First Ten Amendments page here. Amendments:Preamble to the Bill of RightsLearn about the 1st Amendment here. Learn about the 2nd Amendment here. Learn about the 3rd Amendment here. Learn about the 4th Amendment here. Learn about the 5th Amendment here. Learn about the 6th Amendment here. Learn about the 7th Amendment here. Learn about the 8th Amendment here. Learn about the 9th Amendment here. Learn about the 10th Amendment here. Read the Bill of Rights here. Return
to Top of Third Amendment Return to First Ten Amendments 4th Amendment 1st Amendment History of the Bill of Rights Main Bill of Rights page Revolutionary War and Beyond Home |
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