Federal Judge Gary Miller in Texas ruled on Friday that a military draft as the US has used it in the past is unconstitutional.
Before you start cheering, be aware that the focus isn’t on the draft but on its male-only nature. In other words, this is about making the military draft constitutional by drafting women as well. Judge Miller proclaimed that “the time has passed” to be debating whether or not women belong in the US military.
Though the US has no military draft at the present (and hasn’t had any since the last millennium), it does require young men to register for the draft with the Selective Service System. (Young men, it is your duty under God to comply. If you’re 18 or older, get yourself to a Post Office and do it.)
The decision deals the biggest legal blow to the Selective Service System since the Supreme Court upheld the draft in 1981. In Rostker v. Goldberg, the court ruled that the male-only draft was “fully justified” because women were ineligible for combat roles.
But U.S. District Judge Gray Miller ruled late Friday that while historical restrictions on women serving in combat “may have justified past discrimination,” men and women are now equally able to fight. In 2015, the Pentagon lifted all restrictions for women in military service.
The case was brought by the National Coalition For Men, a men’s rights group, and two men who argued the all-male draft was unfair.
Men who fail to register with the Selective Service System at their 18th birthday can be denied public benefits like federal employment and student loans. Women cannot register for Selective Service.
The ruling comes as an 11-member commission is studying the future of the draft, including whether women should be included or whether there should continue to be draft registration at all.
If you are inclined to relax about this matter because this is just one man’s opinion, one lone judge’s ruling, ask any US President about the power of a single federal judge.
But if you need a little bit of weak reassurance, here’s more from my source article:
But the ruling came in the form of a declaratory judgment and not an injunction, meaning that the court didn’t specifically order the government how to change Selective Service to make it constitutional.
“Yes, to some extent this is symbolic, but it does have some real-world impact,” said Marc Angelucci, the lawyer for the men challenging the draft. “Either they need to get rid of the draft registration, or they need to require women to do the same thing that men do.”
Source: With women in combat roles, a federal court rules the male-only draft unconstitutional
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