k no
action on this proposal.

CONSCRIPTION

The constitutions adopted during the Revolutionary War by at least nine
of the States sanctioned compulsory military service.[1233] Towards the
end of the War of 1812, conscription of men for the army was proposed by
James Monroe, then Secretary of War, but opposition developed and peace
came before the bill could be enacted.[1234] In 1863 a compulsory draft
law was adopted and put into operation without being challenged in the
federal courts.[1235] Not so the Selective Service Act of 1917. This
measure was attacked on the grounds that it tended to deprive the States
of the right to "a well-regulated militia," that the only power of
Congress to exact compulsory service was the power to provide for
calling forth the militia for the three purposes specified in the
Constitution, which did not comprehend service abroad, and finally that
the compulsory draft imposed involuntary servitude in violation of the
Thirteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court rejected all of these
contentions. It held that the powers of the States with respect to the
militia were exercised in subordination to the paramount power of the
National Government to raise and support armies, and that the power of
Congress to mobilize an army was distinct from its authority to provide
for calling the militia and was not qualified or in any wise limited
thereby.[1236] Before the United States entered the first World War, the
Court had anticipated the objection that compulsory military service
would violate the Thirteenth Amendment and had answered it in the
following words: "It introduced no novel doctrine with respect of
services always treated as exceptional, and certainly was not intended
to interdict enforcement of those duties which individuals owe to the
State, such as services in the army, militia, on the jury, etc. The
great purpose in view was liberty under the protection of effective
government, not the destruction of the latter by depriving it of
essential powers."[1237] Accordingly, in the Selective Draft Law
Cases[1238] it dismissed the objection under that amendment as a
contention that was "refuted by its mere statement."[1239]

CARE OF ARMED FORCES

Congress has a plenary and exclusive power to determine the age at which
a soldier or seaman shall be received, the compensation he shall be
allowed and the service to which he shall be assigned. This power may be
exerted to supersede parents' contro