Site Presented By
Sunday, Oct 12, 2008
A Boston brother and sister say if he has to register for the draft, so should she.
Jan 17, 2003 | The hundreds of thousands of Americans who registered with the Selective Service last year have exactly one thing in common: They're all men.
Actually, that's not quite true. They were all born men. Federal law requires that all "male persons" register with the Selective Service within 30 days of their 18th birthday. And as far as the Selective Service is concerned, you're a "male person" if you were born male. Change your gender before your 18th birthday and you've still got to register, even if there's not a snowball's chance in Hilla that you'll make it through the Army physical. The same rule applies if you're blind or deaf or without the use of your arms or legs; so long as you were born with a manly member, you've got to sign on the government's dotted line.
But if you're a woman -- a big woman, a strong woman, an iron-pumping brute of a woman dying to go mano a mano with Saddam's Republican Guard -- Uncle Sam might want you in his Army, but he doesn't want you to register for his draft. When President Carter reinstated registration in 1980 following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, he suggested that women be included in the process. Congress said no.
And so when Sam Schwartz turned 18 last year, he filled out that Selective Service postcard and put it in the mail. But when Sam's stepsister turns 18 this year, she won't.
One night at dinner, Sam's stepsister started teasing him about having to register. It might have ended there, but sibling spats can take on a different dimension when your father is a civil-rights lawyer. Sam's father, Boston attorney Harvey A. Schwartz, suggested that Sam research the legal implications of male-only registration. Sam did the research, and last week his father filed a lawsuit on behalf of Sam, his stepsister and three other Massachusetts youths. The suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Boston, argues that the male-only registration requirement violates the Constitution's guarantees of due process and equal protection of the law.
The Supreme Court rejected a virtually identical challenge in 1981. Writing for the 7-3 majority in Rostker vs. Goldberg, Chief Justice Rehnquist explained that the purpose of a draft would be to enlist "combat replacements." Because men -- and not women -- could serve in combat, the court concluded that it was appropriate for Congress to include men and not women in the registration process.
Sam says times have changed. Women now serve in many combat positions, and Sam and his co-plaintiffs believe that it is time for women to be subject to registration -- that is, if anyone is subject to registration at all. Just as Iraq war opponent Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has done in introducing legislation to bring back the draft, Sam and his co-plaintiffs hope their lawsuit will cause Americans -- and especially young Americans -- to think twice about registration, about a draft and about the coming war with Iraq.
Earlier this week, Salon spoke with Sam and his stepsister, Nicole Foley, by phone from their home in Ipswich, Mass. Sam was on a break from Colby-Sawyer College in New London, N.H. Nicole, a senior at Ipswich High School, was getting ready for swim practice.
So whose idea was it to sue the government?
Sam: It all started out over dinner one night. I had just recently gotten my draft card, and I was complaining that I had to go register for the draft and about all the penalties that went along with it. And Nicole started jabbing at me about how she didn't have to register.
Nicole: At first I was just kind of jabbing him about it, but then the discussion grew into why I didn't have to register and why he did. And we came up with the conclusion that that might not be the fairest thing. So it kind of started as a joke and then grew into something serious.
Get Salon in your mailbox!