The Selective Service System ( SSS) is an independent agency of the United States government that maintains a database of registered male U.S. citizens and other U.S. residents potentially subject to military conscription (i.e., the draft).
Although the U.S. military is currently an all-volunteer force, registration is still required for contingency planning and preparation for two types of draft: a general draft based on registration lists of males aged 18–25, and a special-skills draft based on professional licensing lists of workers in specified health care occupations. In the event of either type of draft, the Selective Service System would send out induction notices, adjudicate claims for deferments or exemptions, and assign draftees classified as conscientious objectors to alternative service work.
All male U.S. citizens and immigrant non-citizens who are between the ages of 18 and 25 are required by law to have registered within 30 days of their 18th birthdays, Who must register?, When to enlist , Selective Service System. and must notify the Selective Service within ten days of any changes to any of the information they provided on their registration cards, such as a change of address. The Selective Service System is a contingency mechanism for the possibility that conscription becomes necessary.
Registration with Selective Service may be required for various federal programs and benefits, including job training, federal employment, and naturalization. Benefits and Programs Linked to Registration , from the Selective Service System website
The Selective Service System provides the names of all registrants to the Joint Advertising Marketing Research & Studies (JAMRS) program for inclusion in the JAMRS Consolidated Recruitment Database. The names are distributed to the Services for recruiting purposes on a quarterly basis.
Regulations are codified at Title 32 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Chapter XVI.
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It originally conscripted all men aged 21 to 35 for a service period of 12 months. In 1941, the military service period was extended to 18 months; later that year, the age bracket was increased to include men aged 18 to 37. In 1940, the act had registered 16 million men between the ages of 21 and 36. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, and the subsequent declarations of war by the United States against the Empire of Japan and a few days later against Nazi Germany, the service period was subsequently extended in early 1942 to last for the duration of the war, plus a six-month service in the Organized Reserves. Until late 1942, the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps relied only on volunteers, and all those drafted before late 1942 went only to the Army or the Army Air Corps. Of those called up for service during the war, nearly 2 million were rejected by the draft boards for "neuropsychiatric reasons". The most common "neuropsychiatric reason" was homosexuality, which was considered to be a mental illness in the 1940s, and as such, the military refused to accept homosexuals. Another four million were rejected for medical or educational reasons, such as being near-sighted, having rotten teeth, or being illiterate. As too many men were rejected for health or education, the U.S. Army was forced to take remedial actions. During the war, 25,000 Army dentists pulled 15 million rotten teeth and placed 2.5 million sets of dentures while Army optometrists fitted 2.25 million men with eyeglasses. Nearly a million men took educational courses to teach them how to read and write. In November 1942, Congress passed the Tydings Amendment, exempting all agricultural workers from the draft, exempting 2 million men from serving in the war.
The question of drafting African-American men caused much controversy as President Franklin D. Roosevelt had promised several civil rights leaders in 1940 that the draft would be a color-blind one and the Selective Service Act of 1940 stated "there shall be no discrimination against any person on the account of race or color". However, the U.S. military practiced segregation during the war as African Americans did not serve alongside men of other races and in practice were only drafted to keep the all black units of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Army Air Force up to strength. Furthermore, the military, as a general rule, preferred to use African-American servicemen only in menial roles and as much as possible tried to avoid sending African-Americans into combat out of a belief that they were not brave enough. As such, the Army in particular did not form many divisions out of the African-American men drafted, which limited the number subject to the draft. Due to these practices, in early 1943, African-Americans made up 10.6% of the American population, but only 6% of the men serving in the military.
The issue of conscientious objectors was controversial during the war. In World War I, only the so-called "peace churches", namely the Mennonites, the Quakers, and the Brethren, had been allowed to reject national service on grounds of conscience. The 1940 Selective Service Act allowed the same exemption to the "peace churches", but also allowed anyone "who, because of religious training or belief, is conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form". In practice, draft boards would exempt anyone who proved they were opposed to war on the grounds of some religious belief, which allowed more to claim conscientious objector status than had been the case in World War I. About 75,000 individuals claimed conscientious objector status; about half of these claims were accepted by the draft boards. Married men were exempt from the draft, and in late 1940, about 40% of those called up for the draft could evade it by promptly getting married. In February 1942, General Hershey, who was in charge of the draft, complained "that most of the recent marriages...might have been to evade the draft".
In his 1945 State of the Union address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested that the draft be expanded to include female nurses (male nurses were not allowed), to overcome a shortage that was endangering military medical care. This began a debate over the drafting of all women, which was defeated in the House of Representatives. The House passed a bill to draft nurses but it died without a vote in the Senate. The publicity caused more nurses to volunteer, and agencies streamlined recruiting.
The Selective Service System created by the 1940 act was terminated by the act of 31 March 1947.
The outbreak of the Korean War fostered the creation of the Universal Military Training and Service Act of 1951. This lowered the draft age from 19 to , increased active-duty service time from 21 to 24 months, and set the statutory term of military service at a minimum of eight years. Students attending a college or training program full-time could request an exemption, which was extended as long as they were students. A Universal Military Training clause was inserted that would have made all men obligated to perform 12 months of military service and training if the act was amended by later legislation. Despite successive attempts over the next several years, however, such legislation was never passed.
President John F. Kennedy set up (signed on 10 September 1963), granting an exemption from conscription for married men between the ages of 19 and 26. His vice president and later successor as president, Lyndon B. Johnson, later rescinded the exemption for married men without children by (signed on 26 August 1965 and going into effect on midnight of that date). However, married men with children or other dependents and men married before the executive order went into effect were still exempt. President Ronald Reagan revoked both of these exemptions with in February 1986.
The Military Selective Service Act of 1967 expanded the ages of conscription to the ages of 18 to 55. It still granted student deferments, but ended them upon either the student's completion of a four-year degree or his 24th birthday, whichever came first.
In 1971, the Military Selective Service Act was further amended to make registration compulsory; all men had to register within a period 30 days before and 29 days after their 18th birthdays. Registrants were classified 1-A (eligible for military service), 1-AO (conscientious objector available for non-combatant military service), and 1-O (conscientious objector available for alternate community service). Student deferments were ended, except for Seminary, who received a 2-D Selective Service classification. Men who were not classifiable as eligible for service due to a disqualification were classified 1-N. Men who are incapable of serving for medical or psychological unfitness are classified 4-F. Upon completion of military service the classification of 4-A was assigned. Draft classifications of 1-A were changed to 1-H (registrant not currently subject to processing for induction) for men not selected for service after the calendar year they were eligible for the draft. (These – and other – draft classifications were in place long before 1971.) Also, draft board membership requirements were reformed: minimum age of board members was dropped from 30 to 18, members over 65 or who had served on the board for 20 or more years had to retire, and membership had to proportionally reflect the ethnic and cultural makeup of the local community.
On 27 January 1973, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announced the creation of an all-volunteer armed forces, negating the need for the military draft. The seventh and final lottery drawing was held on 12 March 1975, pertaining to men born in 1956, who would have been called to report for induction in 1976. But no new draft orders were issued after 1972.
The first registrations after Proclamation 4771 took place at various post offices across the nation on 21 July 1980, for men born in calendar year 1960. Pursuant to the presidential proclamation, all those men born in 1960 were required to register that week. Men born in 1961 were required to register the following week. Men born in 1962 were required to register during the week beginning 5 January 1981. Men born in 1963 and after were required to register within 30 days before or after their 18th birthday.
A bill to abolish the Selective Service System was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on 10 February 2016. H.R. 4523 would end draft registration and eliminate the authority of the president to order anyone to register for the draft, abolish the Selective Service System, and effectively repeal the "Solomon Amendments" making registration for the draft a condition of federal student aid, jobs, and job training. The bill would leave in place, however, laws in some states making registration for the draft a condition of some state benefits. On 9 June 2016, a similar bill was introduced in the United States Senate, called the "Muhammad Ali Voluntary Service Act".
On 27 April 2016, the House Armed Services Committee voted to add an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 to extend the authority for draft registration to women. On 12 May 2016, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to add a similar provision to its version of the bill. If the bill including this provision had been enacted into law, it would have authorized (but not require) the president to order young women as well as young men to register with the Selective Service System.
The House-Senate conference committee for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 removed the provision of the House version of the bill that would have authorized the president to order women as well as men to register with the Selective Service System, but added a new section to create a "National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service" (NCMNPS). This provision was enacted into law on 23 December 2016 as Subtitle F of Public Law 114–328. The commission was to study and make recommendations by March 2020 on the draft, draft registration, registration of women, and "the feasibility and advisability of modifying the military selective service process in order to obtain for military, national, and public service individuals with skills (such as medical, dental, and nursing skills, language skills, cyber skills, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills) for which the Nation has a critical need, without regard to age or sex". During 2018 and 2019, the commission held both public and closed-door meetings with members of the public and invited experts and other witnesses.
In February 2019, a challenge to the Military Selective Service Act, which provides for the male-only draft, by the National Coalition for Men, was deemed unconstitutional by Judge Gray H. Miller in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Miller's opinion was based on the Supreme Court's past argument in Rostker v. Goldberg (1981) which had found the male-only draft constitutional because the military then did not allow women to serve. As the Department of Defense has since lifted most restrictions on women in the military, Miller ruled that the justifications no longer apply, and thus the act requiring only men to register would now be considered unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause. The government appealed this decision to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Oral arguments on the appeal were heard on 3 March 2020. The District Court decision was reversed by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. A petition for review was declined by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In December 2019, the bipartisan "Selective Service Repeal Act", a bill to repeal the Military Selective Service Act and abolish the Selective Service System, H.R. 5492, was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Rodney Davis (R-IL). This bill was reintroduced in both the House (H.R. 2509) and the Senate (S. 1139) on 14 April 2021.
In January 2020, the Selective Service System website crashed following the U.S. airstrike on Baghdad International Airport. An Internet meme about the event being the beginning of World War III began gaining in popularity very quickly, causing an influx of visitors to the Selective Service System website, which was not prepared to handle it.
In the current registration system, a person cannot indicate that they are a conscientious objector (CO) to war when registering, but they can make such a claim when being drafted. Some people choose to write on the registration card "I am a conscientious objector to war" to document their conviction, even though the government will not have such a classification until there is a draft.Brethren Witness, Peace and Justice, A number of private organizations have programs for conscientious objectors to file a written record stating their beliefs.
In 1987, Congress ordered the Selective Service System to put in place a system capable of drafting "persons qualified for practice or employment in a health care occupation" in case such a special-skills draft should be ordered by Congress. In response, the Selective Service published plans for the "Health Care Personnel Delivery System" (HCPDS) in 1989, and has had them ready ever since. The concept underwent a preliminary field exercise in fiscal year 1998, followed by a more extensive nationwide readiness exercise in fiscal year 1999. The HCPDS plans include women and men age 20–54 in 57 job categories.
Until their 26th birthdays, registered men must notify Selective Service within 10 days of any changes to information regarding their status, such as name, current Address, permanent residence address, and "all information concerning his status... which the classifying authority mails him a request therefor".
Prior to the second Trump Administration taking office and purging all references to transgender and gender non-conforming people on government websites, according to the SSS, individuals who were born male were required to register regardless of their current gender identity or gender reassignment. This included Trans woman. People who were assigned female at birth who have transitioned, or are in the process of transitioning (Trans man), were not required to register. Individuals who identified as non-binary were required to register if they were born male. U.S. citizens register for the SSS using their Social Security Number and the sex designation associated with that number. It was possible to change the sex associated with a Social Security Number (SSN), and the Social Security Administration (SSA) did not require medical or legal evidence of a sex designation to do so. However, despite some states now allowing an "X" designation on official identification, like birth certificates, the current SSN system is only designed for male or female designations. The SSA was previously looking into more diverse designation options for the future, but this was put on hold by the second Trump Administration, given a memo sent out to bar changes to gender markers on SSA records on 31 January 2025 and enforce a binary interpretation of sex, as noted in the aforementioned presidential executive order. Gender Identity | SSA
In February 2019, the male-only military draft registry was ruled to be unconstitutional by a federal district judge in National Coalition for Men v. Selective Service System. Following the ruling, Selective Service System attorney Jacob Daniels told reporters: "Things continue here at Selective Service as they have in the past, which is men between the ages of 18 and 25 are required to register with Selective Service. And at this time, until we receive guidance from either the court or from Congress, women are not required to register for Selective Service." Despite Ruling, Only Men Are Being Required To Register For Military Drafts : NPR On 13 August 2020, the federal district judge's opinion was unanimously overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. The Court held that male-only military draft registration is constitutional on the basis that "only the Supreme Court may revise its precedent."
A congressionally mandated commission recommended in March 2020 that women should be eligible for the draft. Women should be eligible for the draft, commission recommends By LARA SELIGMAN, Politico, 24 March 2020 In September 2021, the House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, which included an amendment that stated that "all Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 must register for selective service." This struck off the word "Male" which extended a potential draft to women; however, the amendment was removed before the National Defense Authorization Act was passed.
A principal element for conviction under the act is proving a violation of the act was intentional, i.e. knowing and willful. In the opinion of legal experts, this is almost impossible to prove unless there is evidence of a prospective defendant knowing about his obligation to register and intentionally choosing not to do so. Or, for example, when there is evidence the government at any time provided notice to the prospective defendant to register or report for induction, he was given an opportunity to comply, and the prospective defendant chose not to do so.
The last prosecution for non-registration was in January 1986. In interviews published in U.S. News & World Report in May 2016, current and former Selective Service System officials said that in 1988, the Department of Justice and Selective Service agreed to suspend any further prosecutions of non-registrants. No law since 1980 has required anyone to possess, carry, or show a draft card, and routine checks requiring identification virtually never include a request for a draft card.
As an alternative method of encouraging or coercing registration, Solomon Amendment laws were passed requiring that in order to receive financial aid, federal grants and loans, certain government benefits, eligibility for most federal employment, and (if the person is an immigrant) eligibility for citizenship, a young man had to be registered (or had to have been registered, if they are over 26 but were required to register between 18 and 26) with the Selective Service. Those who were required to register, but failed to do so before they turned 26, are no longer allowed to register, and thus may be permanently barred from federal jobs and other benefits, unless they can show to the Selective Service that their failure was not knowing and willful. There is a procedure to provide an "information letter" to the Selective Service for those in these situations, for example recent citizens who entered the U.S. after their 26th birthday. The federal law requiring Selective Service registration as a condition of federal financial aid for higher education was overridden in December 2020, and the questions about Selective Service registration status on the FAFSA form were eliminated on 1 July 2023.
Most states, as well as the District of Columbia, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and Virgin Islands, have passed laws requiring registration for men 18–25 to be eligible for programs that vary on a per-jurisdiction basis but typically include driver's licenses, state-funded higher education benefits, and state government jobs. Alaska also requires registration to receive an Alaska Permanent Fund dividend. Eleven states (California, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming) have no such requirements, though Indiana and Washington do give men 18–25 the option of registering with Selective Service when obtaining a driver's license or an identification card. The Department of Motor Vehicles of 27 states and 2 territories automatically register young men 18–25 with the Selective Service whenever they apply for driver licenses, learner permits, or non-driver identification cards.
There are some third-party organized efforts to compensate financial aid for those students losing benefits, including the Fund for Education and Training (FEAT) and Student Aid Fund for Non-registrants.
The act has been challenged in light of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which prohibits "involuntary servitude". These challenges, however, have not been supported by the courts; as the Supreme Court stated in Butler v. Perry (1916):
During the First World War, the Supreme Court ruled in Arver v. United States (1918), also known as the Selective Draft Law Cases, that the draft did not violate the Constitution. Arver v. United States
Later, during the Vietnam War, a federal appellate court concluded in Holmes v. United States (1968) that the draft was constitutional even during peacetime. Holmes v. United States,
Since the reinstatement of draft registration in 1980, the Supreme Court has heard and decided four cases related to the Military Selective Service Act: Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 (1981), upholding the constitutionality of requiring men but not women to register for the draft; Selective Service v. Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG), 468 U.S. 841 (1984), upholding the constitutionality of the "Solomon Amendment", which requires applicants for Federal student aid to certify that they have complied with draft registration, either by having registered or by not being required to register; Wayte v. United States, 470 U.S. 598 (1985), upholding the policies and procedures which the Supreme Court thought the government had used to select the "most vocal" non-registrants for prosecution, after the government refused to comply with discovery orders by the trial court to produce documents and witnesses related to the selection of non-registrants for prosecution; and Elgin v. Department of Treasury, 567 U.S. 1 (2012), regarding procedures for judicial review of denial of federal employment for non-registrants.
The case National Coalition for Men v. Selective Service System resulted in the male-only draft registration being declared unconstitutional by a district court. That decision was reversed by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. A petition for review was then filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the decision by the Court of Appeals.
During peacetime, the agency comprises a national headquarters, three regional headquarters, and a data management center. Even during peacetime, the agency is also aided by 11,000 volunteers serving on local boards and district appeal boards. During a mobilization that required activation of the draft, the agency would greatly expand by activating an additional 56 state headquarters, more than 400 area offices, and over 40 alternative service offices.
The agency's budget for the 2015–2016 fiscal year was about $23 million. In early 2016, the agency said that if women were required to register, its budget would need to be increased by about $9 million in the first year, and slightly less in subsequent years. This does not include any budget or expenses for enforcing or attempting to enforce the Military Selective Service Act. Costs of investigating, prosecuting, and imprisoning violators would be included in the budget of the Department of Justice.
In the event of a draft, the drums are taken out of storage and inspected to make sure they have not been tampered with. The lottery then takes place, and each date is paired with a number at random. For example, if 19 January is picked from the "date" capsule and the number 59 picked from the "number" capsule, all men of age 20 born on 19 January will be the 59th group to receive induction notices. This process continues until all dates are matched with a number.
Should all dates be used, the Selective Service will first conscript men at the age of 20, then 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 19, and 18. Once all dates are paired, the dates will be sent to Selective Service System's Data Management Center.
1948 to 1969
1969 to 1975
1975 to 1980
1980 to present
Who must register
Gender
Failure to register
Alien or dual-national registrant status
Legal issues
The amendment was adopted with reference to conditions existing since the foundation of our government, and the term 'involuntary servitude' was intended to cover those forms of compulsory labor akin to African slavery which, in practical operation, would tend to produce like undesirable results. It introduced no novel doctrine with respect of services always treated as exceptional, and certainly was not intended to interdict enforcement of those duties which individuals owe to the state, such as services in the army, militia, on the jury, etc. Butler v. Perry
Structure and operation
Mobilization (draft) procedures
Lottery procedures
Classifications
1948–1976
Present
Directors
Franklin D. Roosevelt 31 July 1941 – 15 February 1970 (Acting) Richard Nixon (Acting) Richard Nixon (Acting) Jimmy Carter (Acting) Ronald Reagan (Acting) (Acting) Ronald Reagan George H. W. Bush (Acting) Bill Clinton George W. Bush (Acting) (Acting) George W. Bush (Acting) Barack Obama (Acting) Donald Trump (Acting) (Acting) (Acting)
See also
Books
External links
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