Teaching the 3rd Amendment to Gifted Students

The Law About Quartering Soldiers Shows How Far America has Moved

Nov 15, 2009

Unlike other amendments, the third amendment has little chance of going to court, so teachers can use it as a history lesson to show how the United States grew up.

The 3rd amendment was a significant bit of writing when it went into the Constitution. Instead of letting students read it and dismiss it as a legal fossil, teachers can engage gifted education students in a history lesson of a time when personal property rights were disregarded.

Understanding the 3rd Amendment

When students read the amendment, teachers can easily see who skimmed the amendment because those students will ask, "What if the soldier is related to someone in the house?" and then one of the more careful readers of the class will respond, "Then that soldier would have the consent of the owner!" The amendment 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."

Students need to have an understanding that for a soldier to be in someone's home, the following restrictions apply:

Most students will be able to unpack the meaning of the third amendment with a dictionary to explain how the term "quartered" is used, but as with all of the amendments, it should be open to class interpretation and discussion.

Using the 3rd Amendment as a History Lesson

Most of the inspiration for the third amendment came during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, when British soldiers routinely took over private homes for military use. An excellent resource for teachers of the third amendment is Tom W. Bell's web article "Third Amendment, Gone but Not Forgotten". In it, Bell illustrates the origins of the third amendment, tracing the British roots of home ownership and military rights, and leading to the first phrasings of the amendment in Colonial legislatures.

Bell writes that, "The New York Assembly's 1683 Charter of Libertyes and Priviledges [wrote], 'Noe Freeman shall be compelled to receive any Marriners or Souldiers into his house and there suffer them to Sojourne, against their willes provided Alwayes it be not in time of Actuall Warr within this province.'" Mr. Bell generously allows non-commercial use of the document (with attribution), so teachers can print the entire page and give to students.

Often, students will cite the Union take over of southern homes during the Civil War, which can lead to an interesting discussion of how the government should handle hostile quartering of soldiers during times of war.

Court Cases Related to the 3rd Amendment

There are few times when judges have been given reason to make a ruling related to the third amendment, and the federal government has only had one case focusing on the amendment. In the 1982 case Engblom vs. Carey, the National Guard stayed in rooms normally occupied by prison guards, who were striking. The guards tried to argue that this was a violation of the third amendment.

It is important that teachers stress to students that because of the change in how the United States handles military conflicts, it is happily unlikely that they will ever return home from school and find soldiers have taken over the house.

The copyright of the article Teaching the 3rd Amendment to Gifted Students in Teaching Gifted Students is owned by Alex Sharp. Permission to republish Teaching the 3rd Amendment to Gifted Students in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.