The Relevance of the Bill Of Rights

The Relevance of the Third Amendment

The Third Amendment allows the citizens to have a way of making sure that the government does not overstep its boundaries, with respect to the subject of private property. Citizens in a democratic-republic form of government like the United States, share the power with the law. Many individuals believe that the United States is a strict democracy, but in reality, the United States is closer to a republic in the way it acts. The citizens have the right to vote and elect public officials, however, the strongest and most powerful entity in the government is the law. We can also think about why the Third Amendment was listed third in the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment talks about freedom of speech, religion, assembly, and much more. The Second Amendment is the most commonly debated, but at its heart, it is a way for individuals to be protected or protect themselves from a violation of basic human rights. It also allows them protection against a tyrannical government if one would ever be in control. The Third Amendment however gets the least attention out of the ten found within the Bill of Rights. Many believe it is insignificant in the grand scheme of our modern life. However, they are missing the importance of the original purpose of the simple thirty two word phrase. "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."

The Third Amendment and the entire United States Constitution were inspired by the Magna Carta and many different political philosophers at the time. One of these political philosophers was John Locke. John Locke was a strong believer in the social contract theory. At the time of John Locke, the main theory of government was the divine right theory. This states that God put the king in a place and that it was by God's divine power you are ruled by this king. Locke thought of a government as a contract between two individuals. One of the parties in this contract is the citizens and the other party is the government or ruling class. John Locke theorized that the reason why citizens give away some of their rights, to the government, is in order to gain some level of protection. In his piece, Two Treatises of Government, Locke defends his claim that all men are created equally naturally free in the image of God. The way John Locke affects the third amendment is found in the way the third amendment was created. It wasn't that British troops would be forcing their ways into different individuals' houses. It was that they were forcing themselves onto private property. The quartering of sliders in houses was put into the constitution as a protection measure. The way this works with the social contract theory is that citizens do not want to be forced to have troops quarter themselves in the homes of the common folk. This was a clause on the citizen's side of the contract that they made with the United States Government.

In the United States, private property is something we take for granted. As a country, the United States of America values private property highly. It is interesting because a couple of centuries before the United States Constitution was written. England was still using the feudal system in which the lord owned the land. The slaves and peasants lived on his land for a tax and then from this the lord over the land was able to make money on top of the goods his serfs and servants would produce. This many people believe is the start of private property, however, they are mistaken. The land that the lord was to oversee truly wasn't his own. He was lent it by the king so that he could pay a tax to the king. This means that all the property owned in a country using the feudal system is still owned by the government at the end of the day. The award-winning economist Milton Friedman said, "Nobody spends somebody else's money as carefully as he spends his own. Nobody uses Somebody else's resources as carefully as he uses his own. So if you want efficiency and effectiveness, if you want knowledge to be properly utilized, you have to do it through the means of private property." This quote can be broken down into multiple parts. The first part of this quote is the first sentence. He mentions that individuals who are not spending their money will be less frugal. This is true in a lot of different situations. This point is one that almost all parties can agree upon. He also mentions in his second sentence the same concept just in the form of resources instead of currency. Which we have seen in countries that take over territories throughout history. Some of the most prominent examples of this would be the Dutch in Africa or England when they colonized India. He then hints at intellectual property when he mentions the idea of knowledge. This level of property we see in copyright laws and trademarks. The third amendment can be found in this quote. The third amendment is used as a way of protecting the property owner's rights when dealing with a greedy government. As Milton Freidman said the government is less frugal when dealing with the resources of its citizens than the resources that the government has the ability to create. In the United States of America, 60% of the property owned is private property which when compared to The country of Iran where 49% of the property owned is private. This may not seem like a whole lot, but in reality, if the United States didn't own so many National Parks of a large caliber then the number of privately owned land in the United States would increase significantly. Quartering troops inside of homes of the citizens not only allows the citizens to feel safe in the houses they own. However, it also lets them know that they are protected under the law in keeping troops away from their houses in times of peace.