Document Type
Student Note
Abstract
With the growing fears of a large-scale combat operation against a near-peer adversary, the United States may confront a need to fully mobilize its military for the first time since World War II. A full-scale mobilization would likely necessitate the return of conscription (a.k.a. the draft). The Selective Service System (“SSS”) is currently the federal agency that oversees and conducts the draft in accordance with the provisions of the Military Selective Service Act (“Act”). Yet, this Act has remained untouched for more than two decades, meaning the current conscription system is functionally identical to that used during the Vietnam War, the last conflict during which the United States utilized conscription. Because of the lack of continued amendment and evolution of the conscription system, the functionality of the SSS may not succeed in sufficiently mobilizing the number of conscripts required of a large-scale combat operation in a rapid and fair manner. Demographic shifts in the American population since the Vietnam War are substantial, with a shockingly small pool of the individuals eligible for the draft being deemed eligible for military service. The aforementioned eligibility issue is a result of declining mental and physical health, criminal history, drug history, and more among eligible individuals. Under the current conscription system, the large pool of ineligible registrants must slowly be filtered out through medical examinations, a process which would slow the speed at which the SSS could produce the desired number of mobilized conscripts required by a national emergency. Additionally, the bias and discrimination that stemmed from the draft boards instituted during the Vietnam War has remained uncorrected, leaving the opportunity for unfair and unjust draft classifications to run rampant during any future use of conscription. Without an amendment to the current Act, the SSS is unlikely to achieve its objective of rapidly producing conscripts in a fair and equitable manner.
Recommended Citation
John L. Markel,
Drafting a Solution: Overcoming the Existential Crisis of the Selective Service System,
128
W. Va. L. Rev.
305
(2025).
Available at:
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/wvlr/vol128/iss1/10