Conscientious Objectors and the Selective Service Act

The following information sheet was created by Vernon Martin, of the Keene, N.H., Friends Worship Group, December 1, 2000 and made available at the New England Yearly Meeting Northwest Quarterly Meeting on December 2, 2000.

Information for Quaker 18-Year-Olds

The requirements of the Selective Service Act are not complicated, but they are not obvious either. There is no provision for conscientious objection to military service. Young men turning 18 should know what to expect.
  1. The Act calls for all male residents of the United States to register for possible conscription, or draft, into military service, This can be done at any post office from one month before to one month after their 18th birthdays. The names of those who sign up go into a pool of potential draftees until the age of 26. If there is a draft, those men would be called into the armed service.
         The penalties for non-registrants are imprisonment and fine, but the Selective Service System has not prosecuted anyone since 1986 and fines have never been imposed. Enforcement comes with the power of Congress to deny federal student loans and federal employment to nonregistrants. The penalties are known as the Solomon Laws, after Rep. Gerald Solomon (R.- N.Y.), who introduced them. Since then, some states have passed their own little Solomon Laws denying a variety of benefits to nonregistrants, including enrollment in some state colleges. Nonregistrants have to search for alternate funds for their education and narrow their choices for schools and employment
  2. Since there has been no draft since 1975 and another draft is unlikely, some feel easy to register, especially if they cannot go to college without federal student loans. The Selective Service System will not recognize registration as a conscientious objector.

    What can be done:

    1. Take along a friend or relative to witness all that you are doing.
    2. Fill out the registration form correctly and write across it: CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR.
    3. Make a photocopy of it and present the original at the counter. If the postal clerk refuses it, go to another post office. They have no authority to refuse registrations. Eventually someone will accept the form.
    4. Enclose the second copy in an envelope and mail it to yourself. Leave it sealed when delivered.
    When and if the draft is reinstated, there will be three criteria for a claim, of conscientious objection:
    • opposition to all wars
    • opposition on religious, moral, or ethical grounds
    • sincerity.
    The third is the most difficult to establish. Your copy of the original registration, the testimony of your witness and your other friends, family, and teachers, and the evidence of your support of the Peace Testimony of Friends will be the basis of your claim.
  3. Those who refuse to register will probably not be prosecuted. If they do not need the funds for college and do not need government employment, they may suffer no other penalty. If they change their minds, they may register late and satisfy the requirement of the Solomon Laws for these benefits. But the Selective Service System will not accept late registrations after the age of 26 years. Having waited this long cuts these young men off permanently from benefits unless the Selective Service System is closed down and the legal requirement to register is canceled.

    Registration for the draft has been with us since 1980, when there was still a Soviet Union. Its budget is $24 million per year. In 2000, the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee eliminated funding for registration, applying the money instead to research on veterans' healthcare. In conference, the Senate overruled the funding cut and the appropriations bill became law. Registration is still required although we were close to eliminating it. The Selective Service Act is not so popular now. The country it was directed against no longer exists. It has not supplied a single recruit to the armed services in 20 years. The money it spends could be better applied elsewhere and its operation only increases the military's control over our lives. In the next Congress, funding may be cut again and may stand this time ending the requirement for registration.
    Look for information about pending laws on Selective Service on the Web site of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, www.fcnl.org. The Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors will give free advice and counsel to anyone, enlisted or civilian, who wants to get out or stay out of the armed services. (Web site www.objector.org). The Center on Conscience & War (CCW), formerly the National Interreligious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors (NISBCO), www.nisbco.org, administers the Fund for Education and Training as an alternative source of loans for students who refuse to register. There is also a Web site for the Selective Service System, www.sss.gov/ but dont believe everything they say.
    Names, addresses, telephone numbers, fax numbers, e-mail addresses, and Web sites of all members of Congress are on the FCNL Web site. They should hear from Friends when Selective Service is being considered again.