Selective Draft Law Cases
Headline: Court upheld the 1917 selective draft law, allowing federal registration and conscription of men aged twenty-one to thirty and affirming criminal penalties for refusal during the wartime emergency.
Holding: The Court held that Congress may constitutionally authorize a selective draft, require registration of men aged twenty-one to thirty, and upheld convictions for failure to register.
- Allows federal registration and conscription of men aged twenty-one to thirty during wartime.
- Affirms criminal penalties for refusing to register under the draft law.
- Limits religious exemptions to noncombatant duties as defined by the President.
Summary
Background
The dispute is between the United States government and several men who were required by the Act of May 18, 1917 to register for military service but failed to do so and were prosecuted. The law was passed to increase the Army during the existing war emergency. It increased the regular force, incorporated the National Guard and National Guard Reserve, authorized four volunteer infantry divisions, and subjected all male citizens aged twenty-one to thirty to service after the President’s proclamation. The statute provided for selecting 500,000 enlisted men (and a second body of the same number if needed), required registration, authorized local boards to consider exemption claims, and exempted certain officials, those already in military service, ministers, and members of some religious sects who would perform noncombatant duties as the President defined.
Reasoning
The Court considered whether Congress may constitutionally require a selective draft and compel registration. It held that the power to raise and support armies and to make necessary and proper laws (Article I) includes authority to draft and enforce registration. The opinion relied on long historical practice — colonial and State laws, Civil War drafting statutes, and subsequent federal acts — and on the distinction between the militia clause and the army-raising power. The Court rejected challenges that the law unlawfully delegated federal power to state officials, that administrative provisions improperly gave legislative or judicial power to officers, that the exemptions violated religious protections, and that conscription amounted to forbidden involuntary servitude. The Fourteenth Amendment’s expansion of national citizenship further supported the national authority. The convictions for failure to register were affirmed.
Real world impact
The decision upholds the federal government’s power to require registration and to select men for military service under the wartime statute. Men in the covered age range can be prosecuted for failing to register, and the government may use the statute’s exemption rules and administrative boards to carry out a draft.
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