Let The Right Ones In

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Quick quiz: What rights are you afforded by virtue of the Third Amendment?

If you answered the right to privacy in your home, you’re kinda on the right track. The Third Amendment states:

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 found its way back into the national news over the long weekend by virtue of a suit brought in federal court alleging that a Henderson man’s Third Amendment rights were violated when the Henderson police department attempted to commandeer his home. You can get more details on the story, which originally broke on the Courthouse News Service, from many national news sites. Basically, the HPD wanted to use the home of Anthony Mitchell to conduct surveillance on his neighbor as part of a domestic violence investigation. Mitchell indicated he did not want to get involved and that he would not let the police use his home. Apparently, this upset the police and they decided to make his life difficult by allegedly breaking down his door and shooting him and his dog with a pepperball gun. Then, somehow, the police ended up at the home of Anthony Mitchell’s parents, who lived across the street. His father was also arrested and the two of them ended up spending about 9 hours in jail.

According to CNS, the suit names five Henderson officers, the City of Henderson, its former police chief Jutta Chambers, as well as some North Las Vegas officers who got involved. The Mitchells’ attorneys are Frank Cofer and Benjamin Durham of Cofer, Gellar & Durham. No word on what all of the causes of action are, but clearly they’re asserting one for violation of the 3rd Amendment (which applies to the States through the 14th Amendment).  The real question is whether the police using your home for SWAT activity is the same as the federal government quartering soldiers or national guardsmen.

What do you think?

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Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 8, 2013 3:17 pm

…The right to party like a crazy person … without soldiers

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 8, 2013 5:00 pm

Henderson PD AGAIN, run amok. Violatin' rights & shit. It never ends.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 8, 2013 6:13 pm

Interestingly, the 3rd Amendment (my favorite!) has never been applied to the states under the 14th amendment. The Supremes have incorporated the Bill of Rights piecemeal, and since there's never been a 3rd amendment case to analyze, they've never actually incorporated it.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 8, 2013 7:58 pm
Jordan Ross, Principal, Ross Legal Search
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Jordan Ross, Principal, Ross Legal Search
July 8, 2013 8:25 pm

July 8, 2013 at 11:13 AM – I thought the same until I found Engblom v. Carey, which was applied to the New York State government. But it involved National Guard troops and a really far fetched interpretation of "home". I don't think that a 3rd Amendment argument,novel though it may be, is going to carry water here. Which I don't think on a practical level will be very cogent to the overall case since there are about one billion other legal and constitutional yardarms from which to hang the Henderson taxpayers by – they being the ones who will have to pay for this egregious abuse of a citizen's rights.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 9, 2013 10:23 pm

Jordan are you trying to play lawyer again? Why don't you finish up your GED, then a B.A. and then apply to law school.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 10, 2013 12:09 am

I have not read the complaint yet and, like most here I suspect, I'm relying on the reported facts in various media outlets but I would have thought a 1983 suit coupled with a 4th unreasonable seizure (really? They just HAD to be there to see a DV in progress? And across the street? Was this a hostage situation? Come to think of it maybe I should go pull the complaint on Pacer and see what the cops were thinking) would be in order. Seems like a straight up "because we say so…did you miss the uniforms and guns which means we can do anything we want" type oppression more than a "Ye subject of the Crown thou shalt feed the Kings horsemen, without compensation, or have thy lands seized" sort of behavior. Perhaps I'll ask plaintiffs' counsel next time I see him why the 3rd was the preferred bludgeon in this case.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 10, 2013 5:41 am

The Third is not the preferred bludgeon. The only place it is included is in the jurisdictional statement, where iy is included with other ways of reaching the federal level.