Automatic US Draft Registration: Sinister Measure That Wouldn't Work – DC Think Tank

A DC-based think tank has lamented the fact that an automatic system of registering US men aged 18 to 26 for Selective Service was introduced recently in Congress without any hearings or debate.

The Selective Service System (SSS) is a US government agency that maintains a database of draft-aged US citizens. Even though the military is presently an all-volunteer force, the SSS provides the Department of Defense with personnel in the event of a national emergency.

Previously, US men were supposed to complete their paperwork for Selective Service on their own when they turned 18. Since failure to register at the proper time has been considered a felony, the proponents of automatic registering insisted that it would help American youths avoid potential legal consequences.

However, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft's contributors argue that, first, the measure looks sinister against the backdrop of Washington's involvement in the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts; and, second, it won't work.

Hunter drew attention to the fact that while independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has pledged to immediately veto any legislation re-instituting draft, Biden and Trump have remained silent on the matter.

Edward Hasbrouck, a member of the War Resisters League and the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild, shared Hunter's concerns, adding that, "Congress should stop making futile attempts to salvage, much less expand, the current failed registration system."

In his op-ed for the think tank's magazine, Hasbrouck explained that the only purpose of the Selective Service database is to enable "prompt and provable delivery" of induction notices to US men when Congress activates a draft. The "provable delivery" is important to hold a draft dodger responsible; therefore American men are obligated not only to register when they turn 18, but also to inform the Selective Service System within ten days about changing their address until they turn 26.

The problem is that some 100,000 men per year don't register under the SSS despite risking penalties. Furthermore, "absolutely nobody" reports to the agency when they move, as House lawmakers at the Armed Services Committee admitted in 2021.

Meanwhile, the database doesn't include many young men from states such as California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. In these states, unlike the rest of the country, men are not required to register with SSS in order to get their driver's license. On the other hand, states that obligate drivers to register with the SSS have foreigners who enter the US on a temporary basis and are non-eligible for draft on their lists.

But that is not all, continued Hasbrouck: while only those who were assigned the gender "male" at birth are required to register with the SSS, "no current Federal database reliably indicates sex as assigned at birth," the scholar emphasized.

Even though states have birth information only about those who were born in the US, neither federal nor state agencies have copies of birth certificates for those born abroad, the scholar explained, adding that determining who is who could turn into "a gender-judging quagmire."

While "automatic" registration sounds "seductively simple" in practice, trying to base Selective Service registration on existing state and federal databases is doomed, according to the analyst.