The national Selective Service shouldn’t be so selective. Females should be included in the registry.
A federal judge in Houston has opined that excluding women from the registration and a military draft is unconstitutional.
The judge is right. But, it isn’t just unconstitutional; a selective Selective Service is unfair to both genders.
The Military Selective Service Act requires American men to register within 30 days of turning 18 in the event a military draft ever is reinstated. (The U.S. military has been all-volunteer since 1973.) The men remain eligible for the draft through age 25. Willfully failing to follow the registration rules is a felony crime that can result in imprisonment, fines, and the loss of federal student aid. In Virginia, you can’t get a driver’s license if you failed to register. And forget landing a federal job or getting a security clearance.
Females were exempted from this mandatory registry throughout history, a practice that was codified in a 1981 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that women were justifiably excluded from a draft (and, therefore, selective service) because women were not allowed to serve in combat. In other words: they didn’t have the same opportunities as men, so they didn’t have the same obligations. That’s changed.
In 2015, the Pentagon lifted combat restrictions for women.
With equal opportunity come equal responsibilities. If men have to register with the Selective Service, women should, too.
A men’s rights group brought the case to the federal court, arguing that a male-only draft and registration violates the Constitution’s 14th Amendment right to equal protection. Correct: it simply is a matter of equality. (Perhaps equal pay and equal rights will follow...)
There is no question of women’s valor or competence on the battlefield. Deborah Sampson posed as a teenaged boy to fight during the Revolutionary War and was shot during her service. Ann Dunwoody, now retired, was the Army’s first female four-star general, a distinction she earned in 2008. Air National Guard Major Mary Jennings Heger’s Medevac helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. Despite being wounded, she continued to fire back at the Taliban from her moving helicopter. These are just glimpses at the countless heroic contributions of females.
If there is to be a “Selective” Service, it should be “Universal” Service. Congress — especially the barrier-breaking women of this 116th Congress — should smash through this barrier to the fullness of American citizenship.
First Published March 1, 2019, 11:00 a.m.
