The United States formally ended the forced conscription of men into the military 40 years ago. But the Selective Service still employs 130 people and spends $24 million each year maintaining a draft registration system which every man is required to register with by his 18th birthday. Failure to do so is a felony, although there apparently haven’t been any prosecutions for failure to do so since 1986.
Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) and Mike Coffman (R-Colorado), argue that since the Pentagon has no interest in returning to conscription to fill its ranks, it is time to end the Selective Service farce and stop wasting that money.
As Coffman said in press release announcing the introduction of a bill to abolish the Selective Service and end the draft registration,
In a bygone era, the draft played an important role in securing our nation. However, given the state of our modern military, we do not need Selective Service. Even at the heights of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our military never requested conscription.
Of course it is unlikely the Selective Service agency will go anywhere thanks to our political culture which would see anyone voting for such a sensible measure being immediately labeled was weak on defense issue and not sufficiently supporting the military.
Coffman points out another oddity of the Selective Service registration requirement. Since its start, only men have been required to register. There were several lawsuits that challenge this as a violation of the right to equal protection under the due process clause.
In 1981, the US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Rostker v. Goldberg that the requirement that only men register was not a violation of equal protection. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice William Rehnquist only men were allowed to serve in combat roles and the clear purpose of the Selective Service was to prepare for a draft in case of a war.
The purpose of registration was to prepare for a draft of combat troops. Since women are excluded from combat, Congress concluded that they would not be needed in the event of a draft, and therefore decided not to register them.
In January 2013, of course, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted the restrictions that excluded women from combat roles in the military and thereby removed the underpinning for excluding women from having to register.