The Third Amendment...

Ah, the shortest blog of this series I suspect.  The Third Amendment of the United States Constitution.  Did you have to look it up when I baited at the end of the last blog?  Yea, one of the Amendments everyone knows exists but aren't really sure what it says.  Hardly anyone ever talks about it.  It's not very arguable.

"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."

OK, so it states no military troop can be "quartered", another words living, in any house without the consent of the person who owns the home.  I would assume it would also apply to a renter, although it doesn't say that.  That little conundrum could end up in front of the Supreme Court I suppose, but most rental contracts are pretty clear that the home is the renter's home also while all terms of the rental agreement are met.

But it states "nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law."  Another words.  Yes, the government can quarter troops in your home, but only during time of war as prescribed by law.  For the most part, we have never "quartered" troops by any law passed by the Federal government.  People are known to have volunteered their homes or barns in the wild west days as the troops might be moving from one place to the next.  There are documented cases of parts of homes being volunteered as quarters during the war with Mexico, mainly as officer quarters.  During the Civil War, food was quarantined and homes were forced quartered, but these were under military orders during wartime in a war zone.  Typically, enlisted were not quartered but issued tents or slept outside.  So, generally, the military that was "quartered" were officers.  These would be the only precedents set to date.

I tried to find anything else.  But the truth is that's it.  When we went overseas for the World Wars, we took homes and other buildings as bases, often without consent.  Again, war zone I suppose.  Yet, our Constitution would not apply and frankly we were busy saving people's bacons from Nazis and other oppressive forces.  In many cases, food was reimbursed and funds were disbursed for use of many of the facilities until we built make shift facilities or made former military sites usable again.

Kind of boring.  One sentence again.  Not that complicated, and to a previous point.  Anyone with an eighth grade education should be able to read it and give back the gist of what the sentence means.  If someone tells you it's very complicated, none of it is.  The Bill of Rights were written for everyone, and as such, were written simply so that everyone could understand them.

Next time, the Fourth Amendment.  This should be a favorite...aka.  Search and Seizure.  It's probably going to be a long one...the research alone is extensive...