Federal Court Rules that Male-Only Draft Registration Is Unconstitutional

[MineralMan]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/02/24/military-draft-judge-rules-male-only-registration-unconstitutional/2968872002/

Very early days yet on this, of course, and it will probably be challenged, but it raises a number of questions that will probably result in much debate.

First, I oppose the draft in any form. I served four years in the USAF (65-69) because I was about to be drafted. Currently, there is no military draft, but males are required to register for the draft at age 18. If this decision is upheld, it will mean that such registration is unconstitutional unless women are also required to register for the draft.

I don't know whether this ruling will stand, but it will certainly be tested. It is based on women being able, now, to serve equally in combat roles in today's military. Equality is equality, so forcing only men to register for the draft is seen by the court as unconsitutional on the basis of equal treatment under the law.

So, let's discuss a universal military draft registration requirement that forces all Americans to register at age 18. What do you think. Is that a fair thing? Should young men and women both be required to register for the draft? Should draft registration simply be done away with? What do you think, and why?

[tnlurker]

1. Expand it to include women also

But also register them to vote at the same time....and make it so it is never revoked.

If we know who are American citizens to register for the draft then we know they can be registered to vote. If all 18 year olds are registered to vote...they most likely will never be drafted either.

[MineralMan]

3. Well, any draft registration should include voter registration.

It does not at this time, however. If draft registration continues, though, I think automatic voter registration should happen at the same time.

[Mariana]

18. All residents have been supposed to register for the draft

if they're male and the right age, regardless of whether they are citizens. When my husband applied for citizenship, he was questioned about it. He was never required to register, but he still had to explain that was why he hadn't done so. It's not just legal residents, either - undocumented immigrants are supposed to register, too.

[tnlurker]

19. Interesting

I did not know that.

Thanks

[jayfish]

2. Universal Military Draft Registration...

is fine and shouldn't be done away with.

[MineralMan]

4. OK. Based on this ruling, all women of draft age would be required

to register, as well. Is that OK with you?

[jayfish]

5. Yup.

Why wouldn't it be? Ooorrrrr... Maybe we could have a draft to register for the draft.

[exboyfil]

6. I told my nursing daughter to pack her bags

She will be the first drafted. 21 years old with a 1 1/2 years nursing experience and a BSN. Told to try for the nursing corps.

I don't know about my 23 year old married engineering daughter.

Of course they should also register.

For old times sake I looked up my old selective service registration. It is still there. I still remember my college ROTC instructor giving me heck about not being registered even though I was only 17.

Son there ain't no draft no more.

[MineralMan]

9. Yes, i still have my old draft card, too, dating back to 1963.

It's in my "Important Papers" file, along with my birth certificate, my DD Form 214 from the USAF, and other documents. I even have my military vaccination records in there.

[exboyfil]

10. My registration is online

I think I scrapped all my papers from the time including my ROTC discharge (I left after my freshman year when I was retested for color vision and failed). No draft when I turned 18 in 1981.

[MineralMan]

7. In the OP, I said that I oppose the draft.

However, if there is going to be registration for the draft, I think everyone should have to register, not just men. A lot of the women I know feel the same way. I'm sure some, however, may not.

If that becomes the case, however, the ERA should become part of the Constitution. If necessary, a new amendment should be introduced, passed in both houses of Congress, and ratified by the states. Equality is equality, and must be across the board, in all areas of citizenship. A universal draft registration requirement would help make that happen, I believe. In addition, equality in all areas should be part of any ERA amendment, which is why I believe a new Amendment should be introduced, to make sure that equal pay is ensured, along with equality in all things having to do with the law.

[ExciteBike66]

8. Drafting troops is a form of slavery

So I would be against the registration of any person.

[panader0]

11. After graduating from high school in Hawaii in 1968 at age 17,

I attended Willamette U in Salem Oregon. My 18th birthday followed soon after.
I was already a "conscientious objector" in my mind, having watched the news
reports for years, and the opposition to the war.
I had flown into Saigon about '65. The pilot pointed out a blown up plane on the runway.
I was on vacation with the folks, on the way to Bangkok.
I met a guy named David Harris who came to speak at my school. He was an
anti-war activist (he later married Joan Baez), and the ex-student body president at
Stanford. A smart guy. After his speech a few of us guys hung around to talk.
I told him the way I felt, that my draft board was in Hawaii and that my dad
was career military. His advice was not to register.
I went home to Honolulu for Christmas and my dad grilled me about registering.
I told him that I was against the war in Vietnam. He flipped out. Called a lawyer.
My mother called a priest (she was even religious). Neither could convince me
to register. Then my mom told me that I was killing my dad. So I registered.
I tried to claim conscientious object status. The guy asked me--"Are you Amish,
are you Quaker"? I said no, I just don't believe I should travel halfway around the
world to kill people I don't know for reasons I don't believe in."
He stamped "Denied".

[DURHAM D]

12. Pass the ERA and then we will talk. nt

[MineralMan]

14. See my #7

[DURHAM D]

16. Equal Pay is already the law.

As for your referral to see your posts...I can think and speak for myself. I am a woman.

[MineralMan]

20. It is the law, but not the practice.

[Hekate]

22. I have to agree with MM on this: it is the law but not the practice. Even worse is the parity issue

..in which jobs traditionally female still have a lower salary than jobs considered traditionally male; or, to put it another way, "women's work" that requires an educated skillset will be paid the same as "men's work" that has a very basic uneducated skillset.

[smirkymonkey]

13. No ERA, no mandatory draft for women.

No equal pay for equal work, no mandatory draft. I could go on, but I think you get my drift. Until we have the same rights and privileges under the law and in the workplace, we should not be forced to register for the draft.

Men say equality is equality, but we don't have full equality yet and until we do, I see no reason that we should have to share in the less favorable aspects of manhood while still being denied the full benefits of manhood.

[MineralMan]

15. See my #7

[MicaelS]

17. If there is a REAL National Emergency...

Every man, woman, dog and robot will be subject to a draft. There will be no discussion of age limits or the ERA or equal pay, or any other objections.

However, if a new registration system is proposed I think everyone who turns 18 should have to register.

[Hekate]

21. Two things immediately occur to me: the Bush-Cheney admin had the DoD collect high school boys'...

...data at the age of 18. That is, high schools are required to send this info on to the Dept of Defense. Parents and students are allowed to opt-out, but they have to know about it in first place.

This afaic amounts to a pre-registration for the draft without even asking if that's what you want.

Second, the ERA is once again on the public radar. I'm about your age: this has been around a long time, and I have developed second thoughts about how broad its language is, i.e. language that essentially says women and men are exactly the same. Young women will be drafted, I guarantee.

How to put this: think of the issue called potty-parity. Architects and lawmakers think they solve the problem of mile-long lines for women's restrooms by mandating equal square-footage, yet the problem remains. Well, Charlie, you shoulda asked your wife. Women bring in their children and their doddering mothers. Women have different clothes. Women have to sit down 100% of the time.

Women may be equal human beings with men, but they are not "the same," and they have different needs in different spaces.

I am not saying there is no place for women in the military, but I am saying it is complicated, and that I have come to distrust the capacity of (particularly) GOP lawmakers to get it right.

[Gothmog]

23. Yeah