Senator Mike Lee Aims to Exempt Women From the Draft, and Wrest the Issue Away From the Supreme Court

By Jonah Bennett Published on February 10, 2016

GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah is planning to introduce a bill forever preventing women from signing up for the military draft. “I do not want to see my 15-year-old daughter drafted into the military,” Lee said, according to National Review Online.

While the draft requirement does not yet affect women, the recent lifting of the ban on women in combat roles effectively destroyed the main justification for excluding women from Selective Service obligation. The Supreme Court ruled in 1981 that because women didn’t have access to combat roles, it made little sense to force them into the draft.

But Lee definitely does not want the Supreme Court to revisit the 1981 case. The idea of his legislation is to wrest any power from the Supreme Court and vest it in Congress, giving Congress the sole authority to determine draft policy.

“This debate and decision will have to be made by members of Congress, not less accountable political leaders at the Pentagon or Court justices,” said Conn Carroll, spokesman for Sen. Lee, according to National Review Online.

Lee’s bill will act as competition to legislation introduced last week by GOP Reps. Duncan Hunter and Ryan Zinke. The two members of Congress forwarded the bill to force women to sign up for the draft as a form of protest, saying that the draft being applied to all genders was an inevitable consequence of all women access to all combat roles.

During a hearing at the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, top generals from the Marine Corps and Army said that they support drafting all genders because of the new shift prompted by Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Republican presidential candidates, with the noted exception of Sen. Ted Cruz, also voiced support for drafting women. Cruz, on the other hand, derided the idea as a quintessential example of political correctness spiraling out of control.

“Political correctness is dangerous, and the idea that we would draft our daughters to forcibly bring them into the military and put them in combat, I think is wrong. It is immoral and if I am president, we ain’t doing it,” Cruz said.

 

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