Amendment 3 — Overview Of Third Amendment Quartering Soldiers

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The Third Amendment limits the federal government’s ability to use private homes as lodging for soldiers. The Supreme Court has never decided a case directly implicating the Third Amendment and has cited it only in a handful of opinions.[1](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-3/overview-of-third-amendment-quartering-soldiers#fn1amd3 " See infra . ") As a result, some legal scholars consider the Amendment to be “an interesting study in constitutional obsolescence.” [2](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-3/overview-of-third-amendment-quartering-soldiers#fn2amd3 " Morton J. Horwitz, Is the Third Amendment Obsolete?, 26 Val. Univ. L. Rev. 209, 212 (1991); accord William S. Fields & David T. Hardy, The Third Amendment and the Issue of the Maintenance of Standing Armies: A Legal History, 35 Am. J. Legal Hist. 393, 393 (1991). ") When ratified, however, the Third Amendment enshrined “protections of great importance,” [3](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-3/overview-of-third-amendment-quartering-soldiers#fn3amd3 " Fields & Hardy, supra note 2, at 394. ") reflecting the Founders’ pre-Revolutionary experiences with British soldiers and centuries of English history.[4](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-3/overview-of-third-amendment-quartering-soldiers#fn4amd3 " See infra . ")

Despite the Amendment’s near-disuse as to its original protections,[5](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-3/overview-of-third-amendment-quartering-soldiers#fn5amd3 " Contra Engblom v. Carey, 677 F.2d 957 (2d Cir. 1982). ") it took on a new dimension in the second half of the twentieth century, with courts and scholars citing it as one of the constitutional “guarantees creat[ing] zones of privacy” [6](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-3/overview-of-third-amendment-quartering-soldiers#fn6amd3 " Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 484 (1965); see also Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 350 n.5 (1967). ") and for a “traditional and strong resistance of Americans to any military intrusion into civilian affairs.” [7](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-3/overview-of-third-amendment-quartering-soldiers#fn7amd3 " Laird v. Tatum, 408 U.S. 1, 15 (1972); see . ")

Footnotes

1

See infra .

2

Morton J. Horwitz, Is the Third Amendment Obsolete?, 26 Val. Univ. L. Rev. 209, 212 (1991); accord William S. Fields & David T. Hardy, The Third Amendment and the Issue of the Maintenance of Standing Armies: A Legal History, 35 Am. J. Legal Hist. 393, 393 (1991).

3

Fields & Hardy, supra note 2, at 394.

4

See infra .

5

Contra Engblom v. Carey, 677 F.2d 957 (2d Cir. 1982).

6

Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 , 484 (1965); see also Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 , 350 n.5 (1967).

7

Laird v. Tatum, 408 U.S. 1 , 15 (1972); see .