The Bill of Rights: Amendment 3

Amendment III 

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 third amendment is regarding the right of the people to be secure in their property and persons. This rights that this amendment protects are reiterated several times but this specific prohibition to the government is a result of the British rule in the colonies. The idea expressed in the third amendment were not new however but had been included in the English Bill of Rights of 1689 which stated that the king's subjects had the right to “not to be burdened with the sojourning of soldiers against their will.” So if it was already prohibited why were troops quartered in America? The answer to that lies with Lord Loudoun, he realize that the English Bill of Rights did not apply in the Americas and decreed that if barracks were not available they would take quarter in the private buildings of citizens.

 I did some searching around but did not see any laws regarding the quartering of soldiers in times of war so it seems to be effectively banned outright unless some laws are passed through congress. I did take a little time to ask some people I know that have been in the military just to see if they knew something I did not but they did not know of any specific laws that would grant that power though he did point me to Title 10 but even then I really did not see anything that specifically applied to legally quartering soldiers during times of war.

 Interestingly I was told from one soldier that during his time in the National Guard he was involved in cleaning up during Katrina. He told me that his unit mostly slept in either old government buildings or in parking lots. He also said that soldiers rarely ask to be in a private citizens homes and that a lot of citizens actually offer the space.

 So how does this amendment hold to the working definition of a right that I established for use in this series? It seems to hold up pretty well despite having to read into the text to determine the root right being infringed upon. As has been seen before the people have a right to be secure in their persons and property and this is no exception to that.

 http://www.crf-usa.org/images/pdf/quarteringofsoldiersincolonialaamerica.pdf