Federal Judge rules that a male-only draft is unconstitutional.

A female soldier serving in Iraq in 2003. USA Today/AFP/Getty.

A federal judge has ruled that a male-only draft is unconstitutional. USA Today. The descion is the largest court case on the selective service since 1981's ruling that women did not have to sigh up for the draft since they were ineligible for combat roles. However, the Pentagon lifted the ban on women in combat and opened all roles to them in 2015. The case was brought by a men's rights group that felt the draft was discriminatory. The ruling did not decide on what should be done with the draft but a commission is working on the issue. The commission says that the status quo is unlikely and they will either open up the draft for women or they will get rid of draft registration entirely. The discussion is largely academic as there has not been an active draft since the 1970's. 

My Comment:

Back in 2015 I had mentioned to anyone who would listen that lifting the ban on women in combat roles would eventually lead to this outcome. The Federal government can not discriminate on sex unless they have a good reason to. With the removal of the ban on female combat roles, there was no way that the status quo was going to remain that way. 

I'm not going to revive the arguments against and for the inclusion of women in combat roles. The argument has essentially been settled in practice even if it is still a major debate. It seems unlikely that the question is going to be reversed anytime soon, even if the results of the change are mixed. 

With the argument being settled for the time being, at least in terms in policy, we all have to deal with the consequences. There are two ways out after this ruling. The first solution is to force women to sign up for the draft. Doing so would be a logistical nightmare. Getting women to sign up as they grow up would be fine but getting all the women between the ages of 18 and 25 would be difficult. It would solve the legal challenge but it would be a lot of work and cost a lot of money. 

The other major option is to just get rid of selective service entirely. America has had an all-volunteer military since 1973 and there aren't many reasons to keep it. Generally speaking, the chances that we would ever need to bring back a draft are pretty low. Getting rid of it could be an option. 

Of course if we were to have a major war breakout then we might regret getting rid of the draft. In the event of a war between us and Russia, China or a civil war they would probably have to bring the draft back. Such a war is almost unthinkable but not impossible so I doubt that they would get rid of the draft. My guess is that they will open up selective service to women. 

Regardless of the wisdom of letting women into combat roles, I do agree that if we are going to let them do so it would be discriminatory to draft only men. Indeed, even though I personally disagree with women in combat roles for practical reasons, I do think that it would be nice if women would pull their weight in warfare as well. Forcing them to register for the draft would be a good step, even if it was an almost completely symbolic one.