The Trump administration’s plan to implement automatic registration for the military draft is drawing pushback from a coalition of anti-war groups who argue the effort will increase the likelihood of conflict and violate the privacy of US citizens and residents.
The Selective Service System (SSS) intends to register “every male citizen of the United States” between the ages of 18 and 25, beginning in December, to a list of those eligible to serve in the military, rather than wait for them to self-register.
Congress approved the automatic registration mandate last year, prompting more than 40 anti-war, religious, feminist and civil liberties organizations to demand that lawmakers end the registration initiative and repeal the draft.
“You see the diversity of groups that are involved here,” Edward Hasbrouck, one of the organizers of the anti-draft coalition, told The Post — touting a list of backers that includes CODEPINK, the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity and numerous Quaker, Mennonite and Christian organizations.
“I think it’s interesting, in Congress, even though support for continuing draft registration or expanding it or trying to salvage it from failure has been bipartisan, the opposition has also been bipartisan,” he said.
Hasbrouck, who was prosecuted by the late Robert Mueller in the 1980s for publicly refusing to register for the draft and served a six-month prison stint, argued that automatic registration would not produce an accurate picture of potential draftees but rather a tool for “weaponization.”
“In order to attempt to register people automatically, the Selective Service System will be given unprecedented authority to access databases of any other federal agency that it thinks might help identify or locate potential draftees,” Hasbrouck claimed.
Hasbrouck expressed concern over the potential for “gender witch hunts” as SSS will have to determine every 18-year-old’s sex as assigned at birth.
He also feared illegal immigrants, who are required to register for the draft, could be targeted.
“How exactly are they supposed to come up with a list of the names and addresses of every undocumented 18 through 26 year old man in the US?” Hasbrouck argued. “Obviously, no federal agency has that today, but again, SSS has a mandate that could easily be used and weaponized to go and try and compile – with whatever tools it can come up with – information about immigrants.
“This is a really dangerous data grab with very few of the kinds of guardrails that normally apply.”
The US has not had a military draft since the Vietnam War, but the Iran conflict has fueled concerns that one could take place.
The latest SSS data shows registration rates for 18-year-olds were only 42% in 2024, a slight increase from the prior year.
Hasbrouck argued that the data indicate young people “wouldn’t comply” if conscripted and that “continuing to pretend that a draft is an option props up continued planning for endless, unlimited wars, without the war planners having to even think about whether enough people will volunteer to fight them.”
The SSS did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
While the Iran war remains unresolved despite a fragile cease-fire, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said implementing a draft is “not part of the current plan right now,” but that President Trump “wisely keeps his options on the table.”
