Supreme Court Upholds Military Selective Service Act, which requires only men in the United States to Register for Draft

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Washington DC, the Supreme Court on Monday turned away a challenge to the constitutionality of the federal requirement that only men register for the draft when they become legal adults, declining to revisit an earlier decision that upheld the policy on Selective Service.

The case rejected by the justices involved the Military Selective Service Act, which requires every man in the United States to register with the Selective Service System when he turns 18. Those who fail to do so can be denied federal student loans or civil service appointments, disqualified from citizenship or even face criminal charges.

A group called the National Coalition for Men and two of its members, James Lesmeister and Anthony Davis, challenged  the gender-based requirement is unlawful sex discrimination in violation of the Constitution and asked the Supreme Court to invalidate the law.

“The registration requirement is one of the last sex-based classifications in federal law,” they wrote in their petition urging the Supreme Court to hear the case. “It imposes selective burdens on men, reinforces the notion that women are not full and equal citizens, and perpetuates stereotypes about men’s and women’s capabilities.”