Kriti Agrawal –
The U.S. Supreme Court is being urged to rule on whether the government’s requirement that only men can register for the draft when they turn 18 is sex discrimination.
The question of whether it is unlawful to require males to register but not women to do so may appear to have little practical significance.
The last time a draft was held during the Vietnam War, and since then, the military has been entirely voluntary.
The Supreme Court might decide whether to hear a dispute regarding the Military Selective Service Act, which requires males to register for the draft, as early as possible.
The director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project, Ria Tabacco Mar, who is petitioning the Court to hear the case, claims that asking males to register places a ‘significant burden on men that are not imposed on women.’
Men who fail to register risk losing their eligibility for student loans and civil service jobs, as well as being charged with a felony punishable by a fine of up to USD 250,000 and five years in prison.
If the Court accepts the case, it will not decide whether or not women must register, but rather whether or not the current system is lawful. If it isn’t, Congress will have to determine how to respond, either by drafting legislation requiring everyone to register or by deciding that registration is no longer required.
The topic of who must register for the draft has previously been taken to Court. It upheld the men-only registration rule by a 6-3 majority in 1981.
The Biden administration is urging the Court to decline to hear the case and instead direct the matter to Congress.
In a brief, administration attorneys stated that any “Reconsideration of the constitutionality of the male-only registration restriction would be premature at this time because Congress is actively studying the issue.”