## Facts

- The Military Selective Service Act authorized the President to require draft registration of males, but not females, to support potential future conscription.
- Draft registration ended in 1975 after statutory changes curtailed peacetime conscription.
- In 1980, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the President sought to restart registration and requested that Congress authorize registration of women as well as men.
- Congress funded the resumption of registration but declined to amend the statute to include women, maintaining male-only registration.
- Men subject to registration sued, alleging the statute’s sex-based classification violated the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
- A three-judge federal district court held the male-only requirement unconstitutional and enjoined registration under the Act.
- The government appealed directly to the Supreme Court.

## Issues

1. Whether the Military Selective Service Act’s requirement that only men register for possible conscription violates the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the district court (6–3) and upheld the statute.
- The Court held Congress acted within its Article I authority to raise and regulate the armed forces by requiring registration of men but not women.
- The Court emphasized strong judicial deference to Congress in national defense and military affairs, particularly where Congress expressly considered the constitutional question.
- Because women were then barred from combat roles, the Court concluded men and women were not similarly situated for draft-registration purposes.
- The Court accepted Congress’s judgment that registration’s central purpose was to prepare for drafting combat troops and that registering women would impose administrative costs for limited military utility.
- Dissents argued that non-combat drafting of women could still advance military needs and that the majority’s deference insufficiently protected equality guarantees.

## Legal Principles

- The Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause contains an equal protection component applicable to federal sex-based classifications.
- In military and national defense matters, courts give heightened deference to Congress’s factfinding and policy judgments, while recognizing constitutional limits still apply.
- A sex-based classification may be sustained where it is substantially related to an important governmental interest.
- When statutory and policy rules exclude women from combat, Congress may treat men and women differently for draft-registration purposes based on the asserted need to efficiently generate combat forces.

## Conclusion

The Court upheld male-only draft registration, reasoning that Congress’s decision was substantially related to the objective of preparing to draft combat troops in a regime where women were excluded from combat, and that judicial deference to Congress is at its strongest in military affairs.


Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 (1981)