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Third Amendment to the United States Constitution

 

 
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The Third Amendment to the United States Constitution
United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America; the Federal Government of the United States; and all the State & local governments and Territorial Administrative bodies contained therein....
 (Amendment III) is a part of the United States Bill of Rights
United States Bill of Rights

In the United States, the Bill of Rights is the name by which the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are known. They were introduced by James Madison to the First United States Congress in 1789 as a series of constitutional amendments, and came into effect on December 15, 1791, when they had been United_States_Constitution...
. It was introduced by James Madison
James Madison

James Madison was an American politician and political philosopher who served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States , and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States....
 on September 5, 1789, and then three-fourths of the states ratified this as well as 9 others on December 15, 1791. It prohibits, in peacetime, the quartering of soldier
Soldier

A soldier is a general English term that refers to a land component of national armed forces.In most societies of the world, "soldier" is also a general term for any member of the land forces including Commissioned officer and non-commissioned officers....
s (military personnel) in private homes without the owner's consent. It makes quartering legally permissible in wartime only, and then only in accordance with law.






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The Third Amendment to the United States Constitution
United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America; the Federal Government of the United States; and all the State & local governments and Territorial Administrative bodies contained therein....
 (Amendment III) is a part of the United States Bill of Rights
United States Bill of Rights

In the United States, the Bill of Rights is the name by which the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are known. They were introduced by James Madison to the First United States Congress in 1789 as a series of constitutional amendments, and came into effect on December 15, 1791, when they had been United_States_Constitution...
. It was introduced by James Madison
James Madison

James Madison was an American politician and political philosopher who served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States , and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States....
 on September 5, 1789, and then three-fourths of the states ratified this as well as 9 others on December 15, 1791. It prohibits, in peacetime, the quartering of soldier
Soldier

A soldier is a general English term that refers to a land component of national armed forces.In most societies of the world, "soldier" is also a general term for any member of the land forces including Commissioned officer and non-commissioned officers....
s (military personnel) in private homes without the owner's consent. It makes quartering legally permissible in wartime only, and then only in accordance with law. The Founding Fathers'
Founding Fathers of the United States

The Founding Fathers of the United States were the political leaders who signed the United States Declaration of Independence or otherwise participated in the American Revolution as leaders of the Patriot s, or who participated in drafting the United States Constitution eleven years later....
 intention in writing this amendment was to prevent the recurrence of soldiers being quartered in private property as was done in Colonial America
Thirteen Colonies

The Thirteen Colonies were part of what became known as British America, a name that was used by Great Britain until the Treaty of Paris recognized the independence of the original thirteen United States of America in 1783....
 by the British military under the Quartering Act
Quartering Act

Quartering Act is the name of at least two Act of Parliament of the Parliament of Great Britain. The Quartering Acts were used by the British forces in the American colonies to ensure that British troops had adequate housing and provisions....
 before the American Revolution
American Revolution

The American Revolution refers to the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen Colonies of North America overthrew the governance of the British Empire and then rejected the British monarchy to become the sovereign United States of America....
 (1775-1776).

Text


History

The original text of the Constitution generated some opposition on the ground that it did not include adequate guarantees of civil liberties
Civil liberties

Civil liberties are Freedom that protect the individual from the government. Civil liberties set limits for government so that it cannot abuse its Political power and interfere with the lives of its citizens....
. In response, the Third Amendment, along with several amendments including the ten that now form the Bill of Rights, was proposed by Congress on September 25, 1789. The process of adoption by ratification
Ratification

Ratification is the act of approving and paying for supplies or services provided to and accepted by the government as a result of an unauthorized commitment....
 by three-fourths of the states was completed on December 15, 1791.

Case law

The Third Amendment is among the least cited sections of the U.S. Constitution. A product of its times, its relevance has greatly declined since the American Revolution. In particular, military operations occurring on U.S. territory have been increasingly infrequent, especially after the Civil War
American Civil War

The American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several Naming the American Civil War, was a civil war in the United States....
 in the 19th century.

The right to privacy

Some Supreme Court justices have occasionally invoked the Third Amendment when seeking to establish a base for the right to privacy. For example, the Opinion of the Court by Justice William O. Douglas
William O. Douglas

William Orville Douglas was a United States Supreme Court Associate Justice. With a term lasting 36 years and 209 days, he is the longest-serving justice in the history of the Supreme Court....
 in Griswold v. Connecticut
Griswold v. Connecticut

Griswold v. Connecticut, Case citation , was a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected a right to privacy....
, 381 U.S. 479, 484 (1965) cites the amendment as implying a belief that an individual's home should be free from agents of the state.

Directly relevant case law

One of the few times a Federal court
United States federal courts

The United States federal courts comprises the Judiciary of government organized under the United States Constitution and Law of the United States of the federal government of the United States....
 was asked to invalidate a law or action on Third Amendment grounds was in Engblom v. Carey
Engblom v. Carey

Engblom v. Carey, Case citation, was a 1982 court case decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. It is the only significant court decision based on a direct challenge under the Third Amendment to the United States Constitution....
, . In 1979, prison officials in New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
 organized a strike
Strike action

Strike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform labour . A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances....
; they were evicted from their prison facility residences, which were reassigned to members of the National Guard
United States National Guard

The National Guard of the United States is a Military reserve force composed of U.S. state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive Military of the United States service for the United States ....
 who had temporarily taken their place as prison guards. The prison officials' Third Amendment claims were summarily rejected on the ground that they were not owners of the residences. On appeal, however, the term "owner" was construed more broadly. Since there existed no Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal United States federal courts. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed with th...
 precedents on the Third Amendment, the Circuit Court of Appeals relied on rulings relating to the Fourth Amendment
Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which guards against unreasonable search and seizure....
, as both Amendments relate to what are considered privacy rights (the former to quartering, the latter to search and seizure
Search and seizure

Search and seizure is a legal procedure used in many Civil law and common law legal systems whereby police or other authorities and their agents, who suspect that a crime has been committed, do a search of a person's property and confiscate any relevant evidence to the crime....
). It was noted that the Supreme Court had rejected notions that Fourth Amendment protections extended only to owners of property, that Court having ruled that "one who owns or lawfully possesses or controls property will in all likelihood have a legitimate expectation of privacy
Expectation of privacy

In United States constitutional law the expectation of privacy is a legal test which is crucial in defining the scope of the applicability of the privacy protections of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution....
." Similarly, the Circuit Court extended Third Amendment protections to tenants.

In an earlier case, United States v. Valenzuela, , the defendant asked that a federal rent-control law be struck down on the grounds that it was "the incubator and hatchery of swarms of bureaucrats to be quartered as storm troopers upon the people in violation of Amendment III of the United States Constitution." The court declined his request.

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