Third Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Third Amendment (Amendment III) to the United States Constitution places restrictions on the quartering (the placement and/or sheltering) of soldiers in private homes without the owner’s consent, forbidding the practice in peacetime. The amendment is a response to the Quartering Acts passed by the Parliament of Great Britain during the buildup to the American Revolutionary War, which had allowed the British Army to lodge soldiers in public buildings.

The Third Amendment was introduced in Congress in 1789 by James Madison as a part of the United States Bill of Rights, in response to Anti-Federalist objections to the new Constitution. Congress proposed the amendment to the states on September 28, 1789, and by December 15, 1791, the necessary three-quarters of the states had ratified it. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson announced the adoption of the amendment on March 1, 1792.

The amendment is one of the least controversial of the Constitution and is rarely litigated, with criminal justice writer Radley Balko calling it the “runt piglet” of the U.S. Constitution.[1] To date, it has never been the primary basis of a Supreme Court decision,[2][3][4] though it was the basis of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit case Engblom v. Carey in 1982.

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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.[5]