Vikram Valame v. Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, et al.

The Military Selective Service Act requires men, and only men, to register for the draft. 50 U.S.C. § 3802(a). Failure to register carries substantial penalties. In Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 (1981), this Court upheld the act because “[w]omen as a group, * * * unlike men as a group, are not eligible for combat.” Id. at 76. Therefore, men and women were “simply not similarly situated for purposes of a draft or registration for a draft.” Id. at 78. From 2013 to 2015, building on congressional action, the Department of Defense completely eliminated restrictions on women in combat. The first question presented is:

1. Whether, in light of Congress and the Department of Defense having lifted the ban on women in combat, the male-only draft violates the equal protection component of the Due Process Clause. Article V states that constitutional amendments “shall be valid” when proposed by Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the states. U.S. CONST. Art. V. In 1972, Congress proposed the Equal Rights Amendment. In 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify it. The court below held Virginia’s ratification ineffective because Congress purported to impose (and later amend) a deadline on the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment outside the text of that Amendment. The second question presented is:

2. Whether Congress may impose mutable conditions on the ratification of a constitutional amendment not found in either the text of the Constitution or the text of the proposed amendment.