Appeals court weighs constitutionality of excluding women from the draft – By Patricia Kime (Military Times) / March 3 2020
A federal appeals court heard arguments Tuesday in a case challenging the constitutionality of male-only registration in the Selective Service System.
During oral arguments held at Tulane Law School in New Orleans, a three-judge panel of 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals listened to attorneys representing the original plaintiffs in the case, including the National Coalition For Men, as well as the U.S. Justice Department, on why women should — or shouldn’t — continue being excluded from the draft.
The proceedings come three weeks before a federal commission plans to release its final report on public service in the United States, including whether women should be required to register for the draft or registration should be abolished.
In a lawsuit filed in 2013 by Texas resident James Lesmeister, later joined by San Diego resident Anthony Davis and the San Diego-based National Coalition for Men, plaintiffs argued that the system discriminated against them based on sex. The plaintiffs were within the age range of 18 to 26 in which U.S. men are required to register with Selective Service.
Lesmeister and the coalition said women should be included or the system, including the database that would be used in the event of a national emergency requiring a draft, should be abolished.
The system dates to 1917, and while conscription was abolished in 1973 after the Vietnam War, registration remains a requirement, with 90 percent of all eligible American men enrolled.
A U.S. district court judge in February 2019, agreed with the plaintiffs, ruling that the male-only draft was unconstitutional, discriminating against men on the basis of sex in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection clause.
Continue to article: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/03/03/appeals-court-weighs-constitutionality-of-excluding-women-from-the-draft/
