Thursday, October 21, 2010

Whither the 3rd Amendment?

The Text:
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 purpose was to Constitutionally prevent the then-common practice of bankrupting the citizenry by quartering troops in their houses and forcing their direct support upon the homeowners. In times of war or peace this is a tremendous burden for a family to bear, and forced the family to suffer privation by implied threat of the force of arms.

The corresponding grievances in the Declaration of Independence were:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
In my opinion, these grievances should be considered under this as well:
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

I wonder if the Scholars among us can make a case for rampant bureaucracy and the application of foreign laws in our jurisprudence as being in violation of the Constitutional limits imposed under the 3rd Amendment. While we are not directly supporting Troops in our homes, there is ample evidence to support the theory that the "multitude of New Offices" with their "swarms of Officers" do indeed "harass our People and eat out their substance"; and, they do so under implied threat of Force of Arms.

Don't believe me? Try and resist... After the State's thugs murder you, your heirs will get to watch a mock trial protecting the thug from punishment, "Only Ones" style.

Pax,

Newbius

4 comments:

Alan said...

That's a great point. The unelected bureaucracy certainly qualifies as "swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance."

Old NFO said...

Good point :-)

Obsidian said...

Poetic, but it would easier (but still incredibly difficult) to elect somebody who'd minimize bureaucratic waste by actually trimming the bureaucratic process, not to mention bureaucrats themselves...

Anonymous said...

"Swarms of officers": e.g. ATF, IRS, DEA. You mean, like those swarms of officers.