. . .
K “It was placed third ahead of the right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure, the right to a trial by jury and the right not to be subject to cruel and unusual punishment, among others. Protecting against the threat was a greater concern and anxiety that these other concerns and anxieties.”
J “And yet one hundred out of ninety-nine Americans cannot identify it. Even at tony cocktail parties. It is the Privacy Provision.”
. . .
K “As I recall, it says: ‘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’ or something like that. Congress has not formally declared war for decades, yet the government is at war with most of the world all the time and will be at war with most of the world until the final collapse of the American Empire.”
J “The Constitutional benchmark in time of war allows for regulation ‘prescribed by law’ that provides an open-ended ability to oppress the people. The government can send in the police and contend that they are not even soldiers, even though the police are militarized and soldier-surrogates in the soft martial law that has been in place for the last dozen plus years.”
K “And the Republican federal judges suffering from ‘Republican Federal Judge Syndrome’ will allow the government to do anything it wants to and call if deference.”
. . .
K “Survey the literature. No one even questions that the government will confiscate gold and likely silver when the stuff begins to compete with the fraudulent fiat currency foisted on the public by the government.”
J “The government will not stop there. The Empire will confiscate all the elements – Au, Ag and Fe and Pb.”
K “The Second Amendment may provide some limited protection for guns and perhaps for ammo. The Third Amendment needs to be expanded to protect gold and silver from government confiscation.”
J “The right to keep and exchange precious metals shall not be abridged.”
. . .
J “The Founding Fathers did not have to contend with a fraudulent fiat currency.”
K “That is why I contend that the Third Amendment prohibition against quartering troops in one’s house should be expanded to include a prohibition against the government restricting the use of ‘Washington quarters’ of the citizen’s choosing in one’s house and in exchanges with other citizens so inclined.”
J “Quarters, dimes and dollars are under assault and attack by the government. They are the only means to maintain some privacy and freedom in exchanges.”
K “The Third Amendment may offer the most promise for providing some constitutional protection for privacy and freedom broadly defined.”
. . .
K “On the other head, the Third Amendment is undergirded by the fiction that the house is one’s castle and should not be invaded by the state. Vesting the Third Amendment with what we deeply believe is important may be an inappropriate bypass of direct Congressional action.”
J “Bypassing direct Congressional action does not seem inappropriate to me. Congress will pass the law to confiscate precious metals and not pass any law to protect private possession of property such as possession of precious metals.”
. . .
K “And talking about quarters, . . . that’s my two bits.”
J “And that is my dos centavos.”
. . .
[See the essay by Gordon S. Wood on “The Third Amendment” published by the National Constitution Center.]
[See the e-commentary at “Preserve Cash; Preserve (Some) Privacy (May 4, 2015)”, “The Paradox Of The Republican Federal Judge: Republican Federal Judge Syndrome (September 23, 2013)” and “Boycott Facebook? (August 2, 2010)” that suggests an extension of the Third Amendment to protect against invasions of privacy.]
Bumper sticker of the week:
“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.”
e-commentary 