What is the Third Amendment?

The Third Amendment protects Americans from being forced to quarter, or house, soldiers in their homes. Ratified on December 15, 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, the text reads in full: 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. Of all the amendments in the Bill of Rights, this is the least litigated. The Supreme Court has never decided a Third Amendment case on its merits, and the leading appellate ruling, Engblom v. Carey (1982) from the Second Circuit, involved striking New York correctional officers temporarily evicted from their housing during the 1979 prison strike. The amendment's quiet existence reflects how thoroughly it solved the problem it was written to address.

The grievance behind the Third Amendment was sharp and personal in 1791. The 1765 Quartering Act required colonial assemblies to provide barracks, food, and supplies for British troops; the 1774 Quartering Act, one of the Coercive Acts known as the Intolerable Acts in the colonies, expanded the practice and was a major catalyst of revolution. The 1776 Declaration of Independence specifically condemns King George III for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us. Patrick Henry, George Mason, and other Anti-Federalists insisted that the new federal government never repeat the abuse, and James Madison drafted the Third Amendment in direct response.

Although rarely tested in court, the amendment expresses three durable principles. First, the home is a constitutionally protected space, an idea that runs through the Fourth Amendment search and seizure protection, the Fifth Amendment due process guarantee, and the unenumerated right to privacy recognized in cases such as Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), where Justice William O. Douglas cited the Third Amendment among the penumbras of the Bill of Rights. Second, civilian authority controls the military, a theme repeated in Article II, which makes the President, an elected civilian, the Commander in Chief. Third, government cannot impose ordinary expenses of public defense on private households without legal process.

Modern scenarios that might implicate the amendment, such as soldiers being sheltered in private homes during a natural disaster or military emergency, have generally been handled through voluntary cooperation, statutory authority, or compensation under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Naturalization candidates rarely face direct exam questions about the Third Amendment, but it remains a useful illustration of how specific colonial grievances shaped the Bill of Rights.