The Importance of the 3rd Amendment

Imagine that you are at home with your family and all of a sudden you receive a knock at your door. On your doorstep are 6 to 8 members of the United States Army and they are expecting room and board for the evening. You are required to provide this for the soldiers because it is legislated by Congress and it is enforced by the armed troops on your doorstep. When the soldiers leave in the morning, you receive no payment for your services and it is possible that you will have to provide quarters for another squad of soldiers the next night. If not for the American Revolution and the Bill of Rights, this could be a reality today.

It seems far-fetched for us to imagine the scenario that I highlighted in the previous paragraph, however 240 years ago; this was common practice here in what was known then as "The Colonies." After the end of the French and Indian War, British Parliament decided to keep a standing army on the North American continent. To pay for this army, Parliament passed the Quartering Act of 1765. This act required colonists to house and feed the troops without compensation. The act and its sequel were met with great resistance in the colonies, eventually becoming one of the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence:

"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."

The newly formed nation was very suspect of the federal government created by the ratification of the United States Constitution. James Madison proposed to the first Congress a list of proposed amendments to the United States Constitution. Remembering the Quartering Acts that were imposed on the colonists, the Third Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified with the following language:

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 authors of the constitution knew firsthand the powers of an unchecked federal government. Forced to give up their private property rights, the colonists revolted, creating a government that would be forced to honor the rights of its citizens. Although the act has been litigated before a federal court (2nd Court of Appeals) only once, the rights given to us by the Third Amendment are just as important now as they were in the 18th century. Be thankful we live in a nation where soldiers have their own quarters and the only people that we have to allow to sleep and to eat in our homes are our own invited guests.