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]
I was in the neighborhood, of the Third Amendment, and thought I’d walk around it, kick the tires and if she still ran take her out for a spin. If you look at the Third Amendment history you will find that many of the objections had their origins in the belief that being forced to provide room and board for troops was a form of taxation without representation.
The One is asking Americans to take in “refugees” from Muslim countries that are at war with the United States. While some of these individuals may be non-combatants their entire belief system, religion, system of justice tells them that America and its beliefs are the enemy.
The Supreme Court has twice overruled schemes by the One to increase immigrants. The One refuses to enforce existing law regarding deportation. This administration has never operated with a budget as required, instead relying on a series of continuing resolutions.
If you look at case law regarding other Amendments within the Bill of Rights the courts and legislature started with the original intent and expanded or modified the meaning to keep up with the times. I don’t own a printing press, but I may as well because this computer and the Internet fill the same need and the First Amendment offers the same protections.
The Third Amendment was a reaction to arbitrary quartering of troops and the expense associated with that activity. Is there any doubt that a house full of officers were going to represent a greater financial hardship than a like number of enlisted men? There was no centralized government, no way to spread the burden so it was shifted to the populace on a case by case basis.
With a centralized government the burden is shifted once again. The government doesn’t have to demand that you open your home to x number of outsiders. Now you just have to send the cost of keeping those outsiders in a style to which they have grown accustomed. We call it taxes, whether legitimately levied or not. Like soldiers these individuals are totally reliant on the government for their livelihood.
I think that a talented attorney could dust off the Third Amendment to good effect. Remember Bert and Ernie, “Which one of these things is just like the other, which one of these is just the same?”