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High court asked to review men-only draft registration law
The Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether the government can continue to require men alone, and not women, to register for the draft when they turn 18.
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WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether it's sex discrimination for the government to require only men to register for the draft when they turn 18.
The question of whether it's unconstitutional to require men but not women to register could be viewed as one with little practical impact. The last time there was a draft was during the Vietnam War, and the military has been all-volunteer since. But the registration requirement is one of the few remaining places where federal law treats men and women differently, and women's groups are among those arguing that allowing it to stand is harmful.
The justices could say as soon as Monday whether they will hear a case involving the Military Selective Service Act, which requires men to register for the draft.
Ria Tabacco Mar, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project, who is urging the court to take up the issue, says requiring men to register imposes a “serious burden on men that's not being imposed on women.”
Men who do not register can lose eligibility for student loans and civil service jobs, and failing to register is also a felony punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and five years in prison. But Tabacco Mar says the male-only requirement does more than that.
“It's also sending a tremendously harmful message that women are less fit than men to serve their country in this particular way and conversely that men are less fit than women to stay home as caregivers in the event of an armed conflict. We think those stereotypes demean both men and women,” she said.
Even if the draft is never used again, retaining the men-only requirement sends a “really damaging message,” said Tabacco Mar, who represents the National Coalition For Men and two individual men challenging the law
A group of retired senior military officers and the National Organization for Women Foundation are among the others urging the court to take the case.