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The Congress shall have the Power to . . . provide for the common Defence . . . . To raise and support Armies . . . [and t]o provide and maintain a Navy . . . .1
If a deeply-rooted military tradition of male-only draft registration is to be ended, it should be accomplished by that branch of government which has the constitutional power to do so and which best represents the "consent of the governed"-the Congress of the United States, the elected representatives of the people.2
I. Introduction
The Military Selective Service Act (MSSA)3 requires male citizens and legal residents between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six to register for possible conscription in the event of a draft.4 Women are exempt from this requirement.5 The MSSA exempts women primarily because the draft has been viewed as a mechanism for rapidly inducting troops into combat positions from which women have traditionally been excluded.6
Although the exclusion of women from ground combat roles continues, a large majority of military occupational specialties (MOSs) and duty positions are open to women in today's all-volunteer force.7 Possible shortages of military recruits are not likely to be limited to combat MOSs and duty positions from which women are excluded. On the contrary, a majority of male conscripts, though eligible for duty in ground combat, would presumably fill positions that could also be filled by women. This is so simply because most military positions are in the support branches, rather than in combat arms.8
The time has come for Congress to reconsider its narrow view of the draft as a means only of augmenting combat troop strength. Congress should broaden the intended purpose of the MSSA to include augmenting troop strength in combat support and combat service support roles in which women are eligible to serve. There is little reason to eschew half of the pool of potential recruits, nor to exempt that half of the population from its civic obligations. This proposed change does not rely on any change in current policy regarding the assignment of women to combat positions,9 but any broadening of the assignment opportunities available to women would only underline the desirability and equity of subjecting women to MSSA registration requirements.
Part II of this...