Third Amendment to the United States Constitution - Definition and Overview

The Third Amendment to the United States Constitution is a part of the United States Bill of Rights. It prevents the quartering of soldiers in homes without the owner's consent in time of peace. In time of war, quartering may occur, but only in accordance with law. The Founding Fathers' intention in writing this amendment was to prevent the recurrence of soldiers living in citizens' houses as British soldiers did before the American Revolution.

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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.

Quartering

The third amendment is among the least cited (and some would argue most dated) pieces of the US constitution. Its relevance has greatly declined since revolutionary times.

The only time a federal court was asked to invalidate a law or action on Third Amendment grounds was in Engblom v. Carey, decided by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1982. In 1979, prison officials in New York were on strike; they were evicted from their prison facility residences, which were reassigned to members of the National Guard who had temporarily taken their place. Their Third Amendment claims were summarily rejected on the ground that they were not owners of the home. On appeal, however, the term "owner" was construed more broadly. Since there were no Supreme Court precedents on the Third Amendment, the Circuit Court of Appeals relied on rulings relating to the Fourth Amendment, both Amendments relating to privacy rights (the former to quartering, the latter to search and seizure). 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." Similarly, the Circuit Court extended Third Amendment protections to tenants.

Engblom v. Carey represents the whole of the judicial explication of the Third Amendment.

References

• Constitution of the United States. (http://sources.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_States_of_America)
• Kilman, Johnny and George Costello (Eds). (2000). The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation. (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/browse.html)