CONSCRIPTION
Conscription
Compulsory enrollment and induction into the military service.
Conscription is commonly known as the draft, but the concepts are not exactly the same.
Conscription is the compulsory induction of individuals into the ARMED SERVICES, whereas the draft is the procedure by which individuals are chosen for conscription. Men within a certain age group must register with the Selective Service for possible conscription, but conscription itself was suspended in 1973.
Conscription first came into use as a legal term in France in 1798. It derives from the Latin conscriptionem, which refers to the gathering of troops by written orders, and conscribere, which means “to put a name on a list or roll, especially a list of soldiers.”A person who becomes a member of the armed forces through the process of conscription is called a conscript.
Conscription typically involves individuals
who are deemed fit for military service.At times,
however, governments have instituted universal
military service, in which all men or all people of
a certain age are conscripted.
Most governments use conscription at some
time, usually when the voluntary enlistment of
soldiers fails to meet military needs. Conscrip-
tion by national governments became wide-
spread in Europe during the nineteenth
century.
Some of the American colonies employed
conscription.During the Revolutionary War, the
American government used selective, temporary
conscription to fill the ranks of its military.
The United States used conscription again
briefly during the Civil War. The Union Enroll-
ment Act of 1863 drafted all able-bodied men
between twenty and forty-five years of age. The
act provoked a hostile public response because it
excused from military service those who were
able to pay a fee of three hundred dollars. The
law incited violent public disturbances, called
the Draft Riots, in New York City between July
13 and 16, 1863. One thousand people were
injured in the riots.
In 1917, one month after the entry of the
United States into WORLD WAR I, Congress
passed the Selective Draft Act (40 Stat. 76). The
act created a government office to oversee con-
scription. It also authorized local draft boards to
select eligible individuals for conscription. The
following year, the Supreme Court upheld the
constitutionality of conscription, noting that
Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the
power to “raise and support Armies” (Selective Draft cases, 245 U.S. 366, 38 S. Ct. 159, 62 L. Ed.
349 [1918]).
Congress instituted the first peacetime use of
conscription in 1940 when it passed the Selective
Training and Service Act (54 Stat. 885). This
act, which expired in 1947, enrolled those who
served in U.S. armed forces during WORLD WAR
II. In 1948, Congress passed the Selective Service
Act (50 U.S.C.A. app. § 451 et seq.), which was
used to induct individuals for service in the
KOREAN WAR (1950–53) and the VIETNAM WAR
(1954–75). Presidential authority to conscript
individuals into the U.S. armed forces ended in
1973. No individual has been conscripted into
the military since then.
In 1976, the SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM was
placed on a standby status, and local offices of
the agency were closed. President JIMMY CARTER
issued a proclamation in 1980 requiring all
males who were born after January 1, 1960, and
who had attained age eighteen to register with
the Selective Service at their local post office or
at a U.S. embassy or consulate outside the
United States (Presidential Proclamation No.
4771, 3 C.F.R. 82 [1981]). Those who fail to register
are subject to prosecution by the federal
government.
In 1981, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality
of requiring only men, and not
women, to register with the Selective Service
(ROSTKER V. GOLDBERG, 453 U.S. 57, 101 S. Ct.
2646, 69 L. Ed. 2d 478). The United States has
never conscripted women into military service,
nor has it ever instituted universal military service.
It has conscripted only individuals meeting
certain age, mental, and physical standards.
Congress has allowed the deferral of conscription
for certain individuals, including those who
need to support dependents or are pursuing an
education. Among those who have been
declared exempt from service are sole surviving
sons, conscientious objectors to war, and ministers
of religion.
The U.S. government also has the power to
conscript property in times of emergency.
FURTHER READINGS
Brophy, Alfred L. 2000. “‘Necessity Knows No Law’: Vested
Rights and the Styles of Reasoning in the Confederate
Conscription Cases.” Mississippi Law Journal 69
(spring): 1123–80.
CROSS-REFERENCES
Involuntary Servitude; Solomon Amendment; Thirteenth
Amendment.
