All-male draft upheld

A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled it lacks the authority to reverse a 1981 Supreme Court decision declaring the all-male military draft constitutional. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the plaintiff, the National Coalition for Men, that “the factual underpinning of the controlling Supreme Court decision has changed,” but noted that only the high court can overturn its own precedent. The coalition won its case in Texas last year, leading to an appeal that ended in Thursday’s ruling.

What happens now? “All I can tell you is we will be moving the case forward,” coalition President Harry Crouch said. Other cases in the judicial system also target the male-only draft. In one case, a woman and her daughter sought to register for the selective service. Their attorney, Roy Den Hollander, removed himself from the case in 2019. But last month, he was suspected in a shooting at the home of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas, who presided over the case. Salas’ husband was wounded, and their 20-year-old son died. The FBI later found Den Hollander dead with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Dig deeper: Read Harvest Prude’s report in The Sift about the Texas judge’s ruling last year.