Amendment III · Bill of Rights
Third Amendment: No quartering of soldiers
About 15 min total: 5 min reading + 10 min for its 8 practice questions
No soldiers may be housed in a private home in peacetime without the owner's consent.
- Proposed by Congress
- September 25, 1789
- Ratified
- December 15, 1791
- Group
- Bill of Rights
The text
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.
Text: National Archives transcription of the amendments in their original form (spelling and punctuation as in the original).
What it means
- In peacetime the government cannot make you house soldiers without your permission. In wartime it can only do so in a way set by law.
- It protects the privacy of the home. The Supreme Court has cited it as one source of a broader right to privacy.
Who proposed it
James Madison of Virginia introduced the proposals in the House of Representatives on June 8, 1789. He drew on state declarations of rights, especially George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776), and on the amendments the state ratifying conventions had recommended. The House approved 17 amendments; the Senate cut and combined them to 12, and Congress sent those 12 to the states on September 25, 1789.
When it was proposed and ratified
- Proposed by Congress: September 25, 1789. Congress approved the 12-article joint resolution (House September 24, Senate September 25, 1789).
- Ratified: December 15, 1791. Virginia became the 11th of the 14 states to ratify, completing ratification of Articles 3–12 of the 1789 resolution (Amendments 1–10).
Amendments are not signed into law. Congress proposes them by a two-thirds vote of both houses, and they become part of the Constitution when three-fourths of the states ratify. The President has no formal role (Article V).
Why it was made
The Constitution of 1787 had no bill of rights. Anti-Federalists such as George Mason, who refused to sign it partly for this reason, warned that a strong national government could trample individual liberties. Several states ratified only after recommending amendments, and Federalists promised to add them. Madison kept that promise in the First Congress. The amendments limited only the federal government until the Supreme Court began applying most of them to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment (selective incorporation).
British Quartering Acts (1765 and 1774) required colonists to house and supply British troops. The Declaration of Independence complained of the King "quartering large bodies of armed troops among us."
Key Supreme Court cases
None of the FCLE landmark cases centers on this amendment. See all landmark cases.
FCLE tips
- Rarely litigated, but FCLE questions link it to colonial grievances and the Declaration of Independence.
| This | With this |
|---|---|
| 3rd Amendment: quartering soldiers in homes | 4th Amendment: searches and seizures of homes |
Sources: National Archives (text and dates); Constitution Annotated (Congress.gov) (proposal and ratification history); U.S. Senate Historical Office and Library of Congress (sponsors).