Selective Service comes early in bayou country
For driver’s license, Louisiana boys must register for the draft
Larry Chevalier got a rough surprise when he took his son Nathan to get a driver’s permit. Unless Nathan, 16, registered for the draft he would not be allowed to get a driver’s license.
Even a 15-year-old boy who wants a learner’s permit in Louisiana must provide information to be forwarded, when he turns 18, to the Selective Service System, which would run a military draft if one is set up again.
The same goes for any 16- 17- or 18-year-old who wants his - the law applies only to males - first driver’s license or state ID card.
”They can’t even be a conscientious objector to signing up,” said Chevalier, of Glenmora.
Registering with the Selective Service is mandatory for males and must be done between a month before to a month after their 18th birthday. The Selective Service does not accept registrations for boys younger than 17 years, three months of age.
Rudy Sanchez, general counsel for the federal Selective Service System, was also floored to learn that 15-year-olds were being asked to preregister. ”Louisiana shouldn’t be registering 15-year-olds. We don’t even register 16-year-olds,” he said last week.
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Other states have passed laws requiring young men to register with Selective Service when they get a driver’s license, but none requires it of 15-year-olds, he said.Everett Bonner, state director of Selective Service, said information collected by the Office of Motor Vehicles is forwarded to a federal data management center in Chicago.
”They do accept it. I can promise you. They do not process it until the young man turns 18,” he said.
Yet another case of “Can’t leave well enough alone”. There is already applicable federal statute supporting the Selective Service. There is absolutely no mandate on individual states to enforce them. The federal system works pretty well all by itself. Despite this, individual states have taken it upon themselves to force juveniles to register with the Selective Service. This is an addition to their own bureaucracy, an additional financial burden on their taxpayers, added record-keeping and expense for the federal government, introduction of additional error vectors and an infringement on the rights of their citizens. All of this for what reward? Absolutely nothing.
Bureaucracy running amok.
I think the boy and his father should take this to court. It’s clearly a violation of his rights.
What right does this violate exactly? A driver’s license is not a right it is a previlage.
I will agree that this is not a needed thing but on the other hand I can not see the harm from an individual stand point. I find it funny how it states ” the law applies only to males ” since females do not regester for selective service.
Right off the top of my head there’s the issue of privacy. The state is mandating this unnecessary information and it is giving it to a third party.
And driver’s licenses are neither rights nor privileges. They are restrictions mandated by the government.
I think the fact that women dont register is problem enough on its own.
Well, the federal selctive service may have its own recordkeeping problems. Both of my sisters and I recieved a notice that we were being charged for failing to register with selective service. It used our full names, so the gender neutral name of my eldest sister and the similarity to male names for my other sister and me wouldn’t offer an excuse, since our middle names are decidedly feminine — LuAnne, Sue and Jane. We still had to provide medical proof of our gender in order to avoid charges. A letter from a family doctor and a birth certificate were accepted, but I really wanted to provide them with a used sanitary product.
I’m not sure I have a problem with this…way back in the dark ages I recall signup forms being distributed at school.
The fact remains that males do have an obligation to register. Chevalier’s comment regarding conscientious objector status is off the mark…you still have an obligation to register, but you may be able to avoid service if you truly qualify for objector status.
The fact remains that failure to register in a timely fashion can come back to haunt one later. The state surely nags us to sign up for all manner of things…including voting…this is just another.
Bill
The difference is that they OFFER you a voter registration card. Here they are FORCING you to sign a Selective Service card.
I agree that this is “beurocracy run amok”. It would be one thing to prevent someone of draft age from getting/renewing a drivers license without proof of registration. It’s another to say that someone who isn’t required to register for another three years can’t get a drivers license without registering now.
It’s like preventing someone from getting/renewing a drivers license if they are behind on child support payments. Should parents be required to put money in an escrow account “just in case” they get divorced some time in the future?
I think its interesting that a state can pass such a blatantly sexist piece of legislation. I find it problematic when males and females are treated totally differently under the American legal system.
i think thats a good thing
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I think Daniel Webster said it best, in his appeal in 1814 against military conscription:
“… a free government, with an uncontrolled power of military conscription, is a solecism, at once the most ridiculous and abominable that ever entered into the head of man.”