This entry contains information applicable to United States law only. The Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:
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.
Ratified in 1791, the Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution sets forth two basic requirements. During times of peace, the military may not house its troops in private residences without the consent of the owners. During times of war, the military may not house its troops in private residences except in accordance with established legal procedure. By placing these limitations on the private quartering of combatants, the Third Amendment subordinates military authority to civilian control and safeguards against abuses that can be perpetrated by standing armies and professional soldiers.
The Third Amendment traces its roots to English law. In 1689 the English Bill of Rights prohibited the maintenance of a standing army in time of peace without the consent of Parliament. Less than a century later Parliament passed the Quartering Acts of 1765 and 1774, which authorized British troops to take shelter in colonial homes by military fiat. During the American Revolution, British Red Coats frequently relied on this authorization, making themselves unwelcome guests at private residences throughout the colonies. By 1776 the Declaration of Independence was assailing the king of England for quartering "large bodies of troops among us" and keeping "standing armies without the consent of our legislature."
Against this backdrop, a number of colonies enacted laws prohibiting the nonconsensual quartering of soldiers. The Delaware Declaration of Rights of 1776, for example, provided that "no soldier ought to be quartered in any house in time of peace without the consent of the owner, and in time of war in such a manner only as the legislature shall direct." Similar expressions also appeared in the Maryland Declaration of Rights of 1776, the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights of 1780, and the New Hampshire Bill of Rights of 1784. Originally drafted by James Madison in 1789, the Third Amendment embodies the spirit and intent of its colonial antecedents.
Primarily because the United States has not been regularly confronted by standing armies during its history, the Third Amendment has produced little litigation. The Supreme Court has never had occasion to decide a case based solely on the Third Amendment, though the Court has cited its protections against the quartering of soldiers as a basis for the constitutional right to privacy (see Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S. Ct. 1678, 14 L. Ed. 2d 510 [1965]). In lower federal courts, Third Amendment claims typically have been rejected without much discussion.
However, in 1982 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued the seminal interpretation of the Third Amendment in Engblom v. Carey, 677 F.2d 957 (1982). Engblom raised the issue of whether the state of New York had violated the Third Amendment by housing members of the National Guard at the residences of two correctional officers who were living in a dormitory on the grounds of a state penitentiary. The governor had activated the guard to quell disorder at the penitentiary during a protracted labor strike. Although the Second Circuit court did not decide whether the Third Amendment had been violated, it made three other important rulings. First, the court ruled that under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Third Amendment applies to action taken by the state governments no less than it applies to actions by the federal government. Second, the court ruled that the two correctional officers were "owners" of their residences for the purposes of the Third Amendment, even though they were renting their dormitory room from the state of New York. Any person who lawfully possesses or controls a particular dwelling, the court said, enjoys a reasonable expectation of privacy in that dwelling that precludes the nonconsensual quartering of soldiers. Third, the court ruled that members of the National Guard are "soldiers" governed by the strictures of the Third Amendment. No federal court has had the opportunity to reexamine these Third Amendment issues since Engblom.
Union employees, such as these electrical workers, may strike to bargain for improved working conditions. The Taft-Hartley Act, passed in 1947, ended certain union practices, including closed shops and secondary boycotts. The members of Tammany Hall had a corrupt stronghold on New York City politics from the early 1800s until the 1930s. Taxpayers enjoy certain rights in their dealings with government tax collectors. In 1997 Carol Ward received $325,000 in damages for wrongful behavior by IRS officials in a 1993 audit of the clothing store for which Ward was the bookkeeper. Calling the bill a victory for fairness, President Ronald Reagan signed the 1986 tax reform act into law on the south lawn of the White House. The government has the power to seize and sell property to pay delinquent taxes, as was done with this property in Massachusetts. Microsoft chief Bill Gates communicates with a group of journalists via telecommunications satellite. Individualized live interactive television is a service offered by ACTV Inc., whose president, David W. Reese, demonstrated the product at a cable TV convention in Texas. The Norris Dam, near Norris, Tennessee, was one of the first major projects of the Tennessee Valley Authority. In this draft of the Bill of Rights, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution appears as Article the Twelfth, reserving to the states or to the people powers not delegated to the federal government. U.S. Territories and Their Admission as States Name of the TerritoryDate of Act Organizing the TerritoryDate Admitted as a StateYears as a TerritoryNorthwest Territory;s1July 13, 1787March 1, 1803;s216Territory southwest of the Ohio RiverMay 26, 1790June 1, 1796;s36MississippiApril 7, 1798December 10, 181719IndianaMay 7, 1800December 11, 181616OrleansMarch 26, 1804April 30, 1812;s47MichiganJanuary 11, 1805January 26, 183731Louisiana-Missouri;s5March 3, 1805August 10, 182116IllinoisFebruary 3, 1809December 3, 18189AlabamaMarch 3, 1817December 14, 18192ArkansasMarch 2, 1819June 15, 183617FloridaMarch 30, 1822March 3, 184523WisconsinApril 20, 1836May 29, 184812IowaJune 12, 1838December 28, 18467OregonAugust 14, 1848February 14, 185910MinnesotaMarch 3, 1849May 11, 18589New MexicoSeptember 9, 1850January 6, 191261UtahSeptember 9, 1850January 4, 189644WashingtonMarch 2, 1853November 11, 188936NebraskaMay 30, 1854March 1, 186712KansasMay 30, 1854January 29, 18616ColoradoFebruary 28, 1861August 1, 187615NevadaMarch 2, 1861October 31, 18643DakotaMarch 2, 1861November 2, 188928ArizonaFebruary 24, 1863February 14, 191249IdahoMarch 3, 1863July 3, 189027MontanaMay 26, 1864November 8, 188925WyomingJuly 25, 1868July 10, 189022Alaska;s6May 17, 1884January 3, 195975OklahomaMay 2, 1890November 16, 190717HawaiiApril 30, 1900August 21, 195959 ;s1The Northwest Territory included what are now the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota. ;s2Only the state of Ohio was admitted to the Union in 1803; the remainder of the Northwest Territory was organized as several territories, which entered the Union later in the nineteenth century. ;s3The territory entered the Union as the state of Tennessee. ;s4The territory entered the Union as the state of Louisiana. ;s5A separate act organizing the Missouri Territory was enacted on June 4, 1812. ;s6Alaska was actually organized as a district on May 17, 1884, but it was unofficially administered as a territory. A statute of August 24, 1912, formally organized Alaska as a territory. Most states, other than the original thirteen, entered the Union after having been territories for a number of years\.
See: Bill of Rights; incorporation doctrine.
