The United States Supreme Court has refused to take a case over whether to change the requirement that only men must register for the military draft, saying it is the responsibility of Congress to decide.
The draft is one of the few areas of Federal law where men and women are still treated differently.
In their decision, the three justices who heard the plea said Congress was weighing whether to change the Military Selective Service Act 1917, which required men but not women to register for the draft when they turned 18.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing on behalf of herself, Justice Stephen Breyer and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, said it remained to be seen whether Congress would end gender-based registration under the Act.
“At least for now, the Court’s longstanding deference to Congress on matters of national defence and military affairs cautions against granting a review while Congress is actively weighing the issue,” Justice Sotomayor wrote.
In recent years, Bills to require women to register for the draft have been proposed in the House of Representatives but have stalled there.
Last year, however, a Congressional Commission concluded that the time was right to extend the obligation to register to women.
The question of whether it’s unconstitutional to require men but not women to register could be viewed as one with little practical impact.
The last time there was a draft was during the Vietnam War and the military has been all-volunteer since.
However, women’s groups are among those arguing that allowing the male-only requirement to stand is harmful.
Director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project, Ria Tabacco Mar, who’d urged the Court to take up the issue, said that requiring only men to register imposed a “serious burden on men that’s not being imposed on women”.
Men who do not register can lose eligibility for student loans and Public Service jobs, and failing to register is also a felony punishable by a fine of up to $US250,000 ($A323,000) and five years in prison.
Washington, 8 June 2021
