On February 22, a Texas federal judge ruled that the male-only draft is unconstitutional.

Currently, males ages 18-25 must register for the Selective Service in case the need for a draft arises. Females are not required to register.

The Supreme Court first upheld the legitimacy of a male-only draft in 1981. During this time, women were not allowed to serve combat positions in the military. However, following the Pentagon’s 2015 decision to consider women for certain combat positions, the draft controversy was reignited.

Such controversy has been raised by both feminist and men’s rights groups, with the current case being brought by the National Coalition for Men. This group argues that the Selective Service System unfairly targets men. U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller ruled in their favor, calling the system “gender-based discrimination.”

“The pros [of a male-only draft] are that [males] are more physiologically able to go out to war. They don’t have certain needs that females do. There’s cons to basically the equality of it. Males-only can make it feel like they’re targeting just one certain group, and I feel a lot of people don’t like it when one certain group is targeted. It’s not fair to them,” said senior Alec Hadden.

Feminist groups contend that the male-only draft implies an inferiority in women’s’ abilities and a difference in their interests.

“I know that a lot of women are willing to go out and fight if we really ever need to. A lot of women are willing to sacrifice their lives to help the U.S. if we ever need help with anything,” said senior Fatima Jimenez.

Antiwar groups have denounced requiring women to register for the draft, and instead propose the draft be done away with altogether.

A 2016 statement by a coalition of antiwar groups said, “If the argument for requiring registration of women as well as men, often framed erroneously as an argument for ‘equal rights,’ prevails, our society’s already swift move toward normalizing military violence for youth and young adults in general, will gain a particular focus on women’s participation in military violence. We believe that those responsible for military recruitment understand this very well, and that the push to extend the registration requirement to women is made — at least in part — because it will become a facilitating factor for recruiting more people to fight our current endless wars. At the very least, it serves as one more avenue by which militarism continues to invade civil society.”

Currently, the Selective Service System is still in use. There has been no movement so far to halt the draft.