Compliance Strategies for Draft Registration
![handle is hein.journals/arz27 and id is 851 raw text is: COMPLIANCE STRATEGIES FOR DRAFT
REGISTRATION*
James B. Jacobs**
Jeremy Travis***
I. INTRODUCTION: THE ENFORCEMENT DILEMMA
Since 1980, young American men must register with the Selective Ser-
vice within thirty days of their eighteenth birthday. Knowing failure to reg-
ister is a federal felony punishable by up to five years imprisonment and/or a
$10,000 fine.' For one reason or another, over half a million young men
have not fulfilled this obligation.2 Since failure to register is a continuing
offense, a non-registrant violates the law every day until his twenty-sixth
birthday;3 and due to a five year statute of limitations, the violator remains
* The authors are indebted to Professors Rick Finklestein, Graham Hughes, and Michael
McConville for comments and to Suzanne Russell and Jodi Saposnick for research assistance. We
gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the United States Department of Justice, particularly Mr.
Stephen Trott. We also benefitted enormously from the many primary sources compiled through
discovery in U.S. v. Rutt and kindly shared with us by Professor Robert Glennon.
** Professor of Law; Director, Center for Research in Crime and Justice, New York Univer-
sity; B.A., Johns Hopkins 1969; J.D., University of Chicago 1973; Ph.D., University of Chicago
1975.
*** Special Counsel to the First Deputy Mayor of New York City; B.A., 1970, Yale University;
M.P.A. 1977, New York University; J.D. 1982 New York University.
1. Section 3 of the Military Selective Service Act (the Act) states:
[I]t shall be the duty of every male citizen of the United States.... who, on the day or
days fixed for the first or any subsequent registration, is between the ages of eighteen and
twenty-six, to present himself for and submit to registration at such time.., and place...
and in such manner, as shall be determined by proclamation of the President and by rules
and regulations prescribed hereunder.
50 U.S.C. app. § 453(a) (1976).
Section 12 of the Act makes it a federal criminal offense, punishable by a maximum penalty of
five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine, to knowingly fail or neglect to perform such duty [to
register] or ... otherwise evade ... or refuse ... registration. 50 U.S.C. app. § 462(a) (1976).
The Act also provides that [e]very person shall be deemed to have notice of the requirements
of this title upon publication by the President of a proclamation or other public notice fixing a time
for any registration under Section 3. 50 U.S.C. app. § 465(a) (1976). The relationship between this
presumption of notice and section 12's requirement that criminal liability attach only upon a finding
that the violation occurred knowingly is explored in Comment, Presumption of Notice: Mens Rea
and Draft Registration-Ignorance of the Law is an Excuse, 1982 Wis. L. REv. 234.
2. We have reason to doubt government statistics. See infra notes 29-34 and accompanying
text.
3. In Toussie v. United States, 397 U.S. 112 (1970), the Supreme Court held that failing to
register for the draft was not a continuing offense. Congress responded by enacting Pub. L. No. 92-
129 (codified at 50 U.S.C. app. § 462(d) (1976)) which imposed a continuing requirement of regis-
tration until age 26. H.R. REP. No. 92-82, 92nd Cong., 1st Sess. 17 (1971). Although the federal
district court held that § 462(d) imposes no duty to register beyond the thirty-day period provided](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/arz27&div=37&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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