Re: ERA War and the Draft

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On 10/22/01, Jayne Cucchiara wrote:
> On 10/18/01, Chet wrote:
>> Where does Selective Service [the Draft] stand in respect
>> the ERA. Will women be drafted? Now they are not subject to
>> register. As soon as a boy turns 18 he gets a notice that
>> its a crime to fail to register.
>
> The Military Selective Service Act, 50 USC Sec. 451,
requires
> virtually all men, ages 18 through 25, to register through
> the Selective Service registration process. In 1973, the Act
> was amended to preclude conscription and in 1975
Registration
> for the Draft was discontinued by Presidential Proclamation.
> In 1980, in response to the situation in Iraq, registration
> under the Act was reactivated at the request of then
> President Jummy Carter. At the same time Presendent Carter
> requested reactivation of the Act's registration
> requirements, he also asked Congress to amend the Act to
> provide for the registration and potential conscription of
> women.
>
> Congress declined to amend the act to include women, but did
> reactive the registration obligation for young men. In
> reaching this conclusion, Congress relied on the fact that
> women were excluded from serving in combat roles in every
> branch of the service as that time in history. Since the
> purpose of registration was to maintain a pool of potential
> soldiers who could be conscripted for combat in the event of
> national need, the fact that women were not allowed to serve
> in combat roles led Congress to conclude their was no reason
> to have women register.
>
> In Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 (1981), a group of young
> men challenged the reactivated Selective Service
registration
> law, arguing that its exclusion of women violated their due
> process rights under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S.
> Constitution. The trial court agreed, but the U.S. Supreme
> Court reversed the trial court's decision and held that the
> exclusion of women from the Selective Service registration
> requirements was justified because men and women were not
> similarly situated in regards to military service since
women
> are excluded from combat service.
>
> At President Clinton's request, the Department of Defense
> reviewed this issue again in 1994. The DoD noted that
> America's prior drafts were used to supply adequate numbers
> of Army ground combat troops. Because women are excluded by
> policy from front line combat positions, excluding them from
> the draft process remained justifiable in the DoD's view.
The
> DoD recognized, however, that policies regarding women need
> to be reviewed periodically because the role of women in the
> military continues to expand.
>
> Although not subject to the registration and potential
> conscription requirements of the Selective Service Act,
women
> have voluntarily served in the U.S. military since the
> Revolutionary War. The Women's Armed Services Integration
> Act, passed in 1948, authorized regular and reserve status
> for women in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.
> Before then, and except for nurses, women could not serve in
> the regular armed forces in peacetime. By the end of the
20th
> century, about 200,000 women were serving in on active duty,
> accounting for approximately 14 percent of our armed force.
> Another near quarter million women serve in the reserve
> components, comprising about 15 percent of their strength.
> The DoD report recognized the vastly increased role being
> played by women in each of the Armed Services who, in Fiscal
> Year 1994, comprised 16 percent of recruits. "Because of
this
> change in the makeup of the Armed Forces," the report
> observed, "much of the congressional debate which, in the
> court’s opinion [in Rostker], provided adequate
congressional
> scrutiny of the issue...(in 1981) would be inappropriate
> today." The DOD review concluded "the success of the
military
> will increasingly depend upon the participation of women."
>
> The Equal Rights Amendment was first proposed in 1923.
> Although it was never ratified by the requisite number of
> states (38), it was ratified by 35 states and has been has
> been reintroduced into every Congress since its June 30,
> 1982 ratification deadline. The ERA states simply:
>
> Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be
> denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on
> account of sex.
>
> Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by
> appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
>
> Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after
> the date of ratification.
>
> Whether the eventual passage of the ERA will provide a
> constitutional basis for requiring equality of treatment
> between men and women with regards to the Selective Service
> act's registration and potential conscription provisions
> remains to be seen.
>
> I served in the Army 1981-1984. Women I met in the military
> wanted equality and very much wanted the opportunity to
serve
> in all military occupations, including combat. Female
> soldiers not only share patriotism with their male
> counterparts, they also share career aspirations which are
> often significantly impeded by their exclusion from combat
> assignments.
>
> As a woman, an Army veteran, and an attorney, I support the
> passage of the Equal Rights Amendment; I support an
amendment
> to the Selective Service Act to require the registration and
> potential conscription of women along with their male peers;
> and I support an end to the DoD exclusion of women from
> combat occupations. Soldiers, whether male or female, should
> be judged on their abilities, not their gender.

Re: ERA War and the Draft, 10/14/05, by S.

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