You’ve probably already heard the news, but for those of you who haven’t a federal judge ruled the current, men-only draft to be unconstitutional.

The Fifth Amendment

And where did all this come from, you ask? Well, a Men’s advocacy group in San Diego has been challenging this ‘unconstitutional’ draft by saying the sexual discrimination violates the 5th Amendment’s equal protection clause.

Selective Service Registration

However, things go back a little further than that. You see, once upon a time, there were these two men. They were between the ages of 18 and 26—the golden ages for required Selective Service registration. These two men were not happy and said—a little paraphrasing here—“Wait a second! Why aren’t women forced to join in on this Selective Service thing? That’s not fair! What makes them better than me?”—again a strong level of assumptive paraphrasing here!

Then, a lawsuit was filed against the Selective Service, by a young Texas Resident by the name of James Lesmeister in 2013, which would later include Anthony Davis.

Read Now

Women in Combat

According to American Military News, these following words were said, “Forcing only males to register is an aspect of socially institutionalized male disposability and helps reinforce the stereotypes that support discrimination against men in other areas,” Coalition attorney Marc Angelucci said.

“Women are now allowed in combat, so this decision is long overdue. After decades of sex discrimination against men in the Selective Service, the courts have finally found it unconstitutional to force only men to register.”

Equal Opportunity for Women

So, why should we start worrying about all this now, especially since Congress has been debating male-only registration since at least 1980? Well, if you didn’t pick up on it in the above paragraph, it’s most likely because women can now serve in combat careers, at least according to Angelucci and Gray Miller, Judge of the Southern District of Texas.

“If there was ever a time to discuss ‘the place of women in the Armed Services,’ that time has passed,” Miller wrote.

Judge Miller confessed that the process requiring women to register for Selective Service will take time.