How Many People Are Registered With Selective Service

Men who don't register for the draft by historic period 26 often have issues subsequently in life with federal and land benefits
More than ane million men have requested a formal confirmation of their draft status since 1993
The nigh mutual consequences for failing to register are a loss of student aid, citizenship, and federal employment

For 39 years, information technology'due south been a rite of passage for American men. Within 30 days of his 18th birthday, every male person citizen and legal resident is required to register for Selective Service, either past filling out a postcard-size class or going online.

What'south less well known is what happens on a man'southward 26th birthday.

Men who neglect to annals for the draft past then can no longer do so – forever closing the door to government benefits like student aid, a government job or fifty-fifty U.Southward. citizenship.

Men under 26 can become those benefits by taking advantage of what has finer go an viii-yr grace period, signing up for Selective Service on the spot.

Afterwards that, an appeal can exist costly and time-consuming. Selective Service statistics propose that more than 1 million men have been denied some government do good because they weren't registered for the draft.

With the current male-only typhoon requirement declared unconstitutional, Congress will have to determine whether to eliminate Selective Service registration or expand it to women.

Celebrated ruling:With women in combat roles, a federal court declares male-simply draft unconstitutional

Unable to make up one's mind that question for decades, Congress created the National Commission on Military, National and Public Service in 2016. Information technology's studying the future of the typhoon with a report due adjacent year.

Among the issues it'south examining: Should typhoon registration be mandatory? If so, what'southward fairest way to enforce it? Should the same consequences that take followed men for well-nigh iv decades also apply to women?

Brandon Prudhomme works on a yard in Beaumont, Texas March 27. Prudhomme, who works as a landscaper and dishwasher, can't get student loans to go back to school because he didn't register for Selective Service before he turned 26.

"We're taking a expect at all of these questions," says Vice Chairwoman Debra Wada, a old assistant secretary of the Army. "And that means looking at whether the current system is both fair and equitable – but likewise transparent."

Men who have been caught in the over-26 trap say the system is anything but.

Since 1993, more than 1 million American men have requested a formal copy of their draft status from the Selective Service System, according to data obtained by USA TODAY under the Liberty of Information Human activity. Those status-information letters are the first stride in trying to appeal the deprival of benefits, and are the best indication of how many men take been impacted by legal consequences of failing to register.

More:Should women exist required to register for the armed services draft?

On paper, it'southward a crime to "knowingly fail or fail or refuse" to register for the draft. The penalty is up to 5 years in prison house and a $250,000 fine.

Final twelvemonth, Selective Service referred 112,051 names and addresses of suspected violators to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.

Nevertheless, just 20 men have been criminally charged with refusing to register for the draft since President Jimmy Carter reinstated it in 1980 in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Only 14 were convicted. The final indictment, in 1986, was dismissed before it went to trial.

And then now the system relies largely on voluntary compliance, a patchwork of state laws, and the gamble of losing federal benefits.

Congress passed two provisions to tighten enforcement in the 1980s. The Solomon amendment in 1982 made Selective Service registration a requirement for federal student assist. The Thurmond Amendment in 1985 did the same for federal employment.

Federal student aid is the most common problem for men who haven't registered for the draft, according Selective Service data obtained by USA TODAY.

Xl states and the District of Columbia link Selective Service to a driver'southward license. Merely some of those allow men to opt out of registration, and most a quarter of Americans in their early 20s don't accept a driver'south license.

Thirty-ane states have legislation mirroring federal laws on student assist and employment, applying those bans to state-funded student assistance programs and state employment.

Some states get even further:

► In viii states, men are not allowed men to register at a land college or university – even without fiscal assist – if they aren't registered for Selective Service. Those states are Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, New Hampshire, South Dakota and Tennessee.

► In Ohio, men who live in the state but don't register for Selective Service must pay out-of-state tuition rates.

► In Alaska, men who fail to annals for the draft can't receive an annual dividend from the Alaska Permanent Fund, which gave Alaska residents $1,600 from land oil revenue in 2018.

Every bit a outcome, registration rates vary from 100 percentage in New Hampshire to 63 percent in North Dakota – and but 51 percent in the Commune of Columbia, according to Selective Service information.

"Information technology'southward very uneven across the country," said Shawn Skelly, a former Navy commander and member of the 11-fellow member commission studying the draft.

"How people annals is predominately passively. Almost men who register, register though secondary means when they employ for student assistance or get a driver'due south license. At that place isn't a real deliberate education of people about the law."

Like the Vietnam State of war typhoon that helped fuel the social upheaval of the 1960s and '70s, today's draft registration requirement puts a disproportionate brunt on lower-class Americans. They're more probable to put off higher until afterwards in life – and to need student aid when they do go to school.

In comments to the national service commission, critics of the policy called that policy "exceptionally cruel."

'It was an honest mistake'

Brandon Prudhomme works on a yard in Beaumont, Texas.

Depending on how yous look at information technology, Brandon Prudhomme either had a very practiced or very bad reason for failing to register for the typhoon: He was in prison for virtually of the time between the ages of 18 and 25.

His arrest record includes assault, drug possession and resisting arrest.

"Information technology was an honest mistake," he said. "I was on my own since I was 14 years old. I got involved in gang-type stuff."

But now he's 39 and trying to plow his life around. While living in a homeless shelter, he started his own landscaping visitor "with two rakes and four lawn bags," he said.

He'd like to go back to school for business concern. Simply since Prudhomme didn't annals for Selective Service, he tin can't get student loans. "The financial aid people called me and said, 'Sir, do yo know annihilation about Selective Service?' I said no. They said my application had been blood-red-flagged," he said.

"If it was mandatory, how was there non the opportunity for me to sign those papers?" Prudhomme asked. "He said that was my responsibility."

The law has besides snagged federal it workers, Forest Service firefighters, Veterans Administration doctors and even federal contractors.

Richard Henry, a contractor for the Internal Revenue Service, lost his access to IRS facilities because he failed to annals for Selective Service. They found out considering Henry told them, repeatedly, get-go in 2001. But in 2011, the IRS changed the rules to brand Selective Service a requirement. He was over 26, so he couldn't register.

So he sued, and lost in 2017.

"If they're going to enforce this police, you should know about the law and yous should know about the consequences," said Henry'southward lawyer, Rachel L.T. Rodriguez. "The problem here is, y'all don't know the consequences that follow you forever similar this."

But officials say that for draft registration to piece of work, the constabulary has to have teeth.

"If there were no penalties for declining to register, the rates would plummet, and fairness and equity would go out the window," said Matthew Tittman, a spokesman for the Selective Service Organization, a civilian agency that administers draft registration.

Men who are over 26 and denied benefits can appeal the decision if they can show that their failure to register was not "knowing and willful."

It'south unclear how many men succeed. The Office of Personnel Direction says information technology got 160 requests for waivers in the last financial year. The Section of Education would not release information or talk over its process on the record.

And proving that someone didn't intentionally evade the draft tin be plush and time consuming, taking as long as xviii months to decide.

Marc J. Smith, a Rockville, Maryland, federal employment lawyer who handles such cases, says the process can cost $3,500 to $iv,000 in legal fees.

An appeal can involve researching when and where the Selective Service sent reminder letters, and gathering sworn statements from parents, childhood friends and school officials.

The cases rarely make it to court. The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the courts didn't have jurisdiction over federal employment cases considering there was an administrative process to handle those claims.

Even if Congress eliminates the draft, Smith said, it's unclear whether those old penalties will go away.

"People will yet have this upshot," he said. "And I guess that ways a much larger pool of potential clients for me."