Equal Access to the Draft Is Equality Not Worth Having

RINF ^ | June 20, 2016

[2ndDivisionVet]

The New York Times recently reported that the Senate has voted to require women to register for the draft, with few Senators in opposition. This bill comes as no surprise given the military has been increasingly opening its doors to women.

This culminated in last December when “…Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said in December that the Pentagon would open all combat jobs to women…” which helped military officials advise Congress to make the draft apply for both women and men.

This bill has such broad and widespread support because of its intuitive appeal: If all combat jobs are open to men and this requires them to register for the draft then why should women be any different? Taking the institution of the military and its rules at its face, it seems implausible that women should be treated much differently.

Although the opposition was overall insignificant it should be noted that some of the more conservative members of the Senate, such as Ted Cruz, opposed the legislation on the basis that, “The idea that we should forcibly conscript young girls in combat to my mind makes little sense at all…”

The final outcome of this bill is uncertain with the House of Representatives to deliberate on the bill and President Obama promising a veto, should it go through. But as Nora Bensahel, a military policy analyst, says, “It just seems that now that you have women allowed to serve in any position in the military, there is no logical basis to say women should not be drafted.”

I agree with Bensahel with regards to inevitability and if we accept the coercive power of the state, the military as a legitimate institution, the draft as a legitimate law and so on...

[2ndDivisionVet]

Many of the females I knew well in the military were gay. That was in the Carter & Reagan era.

[TheCipher]

I think all of this is going to come down to a lawsuit and decided by SCOTUS. In Rostker v. Goldberg, SCOTUS decided that women were not required to register:

And since women are excluded from combat service by statute or military policy, men and women are simply not similarly situated for purposes of a draft or registration for a draft, and Congress' decision to authorize the registration of only men therefore does not violate the Due Process Clause.

Since Obamas policy has now put women into combat service, it violates the Due Process Clause.

[5th MEB]

True; but just wait until the privileged and political classes need it to save their assets, and ASSES.

[wastedyears]

So should I have not signed up and gone to prison?