WHAT’S GOOD FOR THE GANDER IS GOOD FOR THE GEESE?
A federal judge on Friday rule that the all-male military draft registration is unconstitutional.
Women, said Texas U.S. District Court Judge Gray Miller, should be required to register with the Selective Service System, just as men are.
While historically women were not allowed to serve in combat roles, in 2015 the Pentagon lifted all restrictions for women in military service, combat included. That’s the basis for the lawsuit brought by the National Coalition for Men, which argued that men were not being treated equally under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution since they alone must register for the draft.
[Read the Selective Service decision here]
“Forcing only males to register is an aspect of socially institutionalized male disposability and helps reinforce the stereotypes that support discrimination against men in other areas such as child custody, divorce, criminal sentencing, paternity fraud, education, public benefits, domestic violence services, due process rights, genital autonomy, and more,” the men’s coalition wrote. “After decades of sex discrimination against men in the Selective Service, the courts have finally found it unconstitutional to force only men to register. Even without a draft, men still face prison, fines, and denial of federal loans for not registering or for not updating the government of their whereabouts. Since women will be required to register with the Selective Service, they should face the same repercussions as men for any noncompliance.”
The Selective Service requires men to register when they turn 18 and they remain eligible for conscription until age 25. There is an exception for transgendered women who are presenting themselves as men — they are not required to register. Those born male who are presenting themselves as female are required to register.
Men who do not register can be fined, imprisoned, or refused federally guaranteed loans.
The case will almost certainly be appealed and end up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, where sex-based classification precedents have been set for “important” government interests.
But the Supreme Court has also come down on the side of gender equality in military institutions, when it struck down the male-only policy of the Virginia Military Institute, a ruling that will certainly be used in the argument to make women register.
Judge Miller rejected the claim that sex discrimination is justified because men are generally bigger and stronger than women. He reasoned that size and strength issues are not as important in modern military warfare.
As one of the last men to carry a draft card with a real risk of being drafted and killed in combat, I say hurray. Back in the day, Uncle Sam was not at all supportive of me taking a couple of years off to backpack around Europe and South America.
Women now earn over 57 percent of all bachelor’s degrees. If we draft women, maybe we can have better educated soldiers, all in the name of equality and inclusion.
It should have happened with suffrage.
Absolutely agree!
This decision did not address the broader issue of threatening a person with a fine of up to $10,000 for not registering with and keeping the government appraised of your whereabouts. Its net effect is that young women will now be subject to the same threat as young men.
As I recall, registration did not work out well for certain segments of the population living under the jurisdiction of the German government in the early 1940s.
We should be wary of the potential consequences of allowing registration of people as well as firearms.
The way countries used to wage war is so much different now. Hand to hand combat is almost non existent. Except for physical strength differences in some, but not all cases, a woman can do any job that a man can. To not avail ourselves of such a resource is at best ignorant and worst, misogynist. Let’s see if the administration appeals this decision. And, if it does, what the SCOTUS does with it.
Obviously none of the people posting in favor of this ever served in combat or they’d change their tunes real quick.
Why is that Mongo? What is it about women that makes you believe they should not be in combat in any form? I agree that they might not be as effective as a man in some combat hand to hand situations. But is there any room for them in your opinion?
Is the USA ever again to be in a situation where we need to draft soldiers? Probably not. We’ve managed to fight a prolonged war in the Middle East without draftees. As long as Israel exists we’ll be at war, but it will not require as much manpower as big wars of the past.
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