Selective Service v. Minnesota Public Interest Research Group - Significance, Uncle Sam And Eligible Young Men, Questions Of Punitive Intent And Compulsion, Marshall's Dissent: "a De Facto Classification Based On Wealth"

appellant william appellee court

Appellant

Selective Service System of the United States

Appellee

Minnesota Public Interest Research Group, et al.

Appellant's Claim

That section 12(f) of the Military Selective Service Act did not constitute a bill of attainder or a violation of the Fifth Amendment protection against compelled self-incrimination.

Chief Lawyer for Appellant

Rex E. Lee, U.S. Solicitor General

Chief Lawyer for Appellee

William J. Keppel

Justices for the Court

Warren E. Burger (writing for the Court), Sandra Day O'Connor, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., William H. Rehnquist, John Paul Stevens, Byron R. White

Justices Dissenting

William J. Brennan, Jr., Thurgood Marshall (Harry A. Blackmun did not participate)

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

5 July 1984

Decision

That section 12(f) of the Military Selective Service Act, which denied federal financial assistance to male students between the ages of 18 and 26 who had not registered for the draft, constituted neither a bill of attainder nor a violation of appellees' Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination.

Related Cases

Cummings v. Missouri, 4 Wall. 277 (1867).
Ex parte Garland, 71 U.S. 333 (1867).
Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493 (1967).
Marchetti v. United States, 390 U.S. 39 (1968).
Lefkowitz v. Turley, 414 U.S. 70 (1973).
Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, 433 U.S. 425 (1977).

Sources

University of Minnesota Office of Financial Aid. 1998.

Additional Topics

Selective Service v. Minnesota Public Interest Research Group - Further Readings

Selective Service v. Minnesota Public Interest Research Group - Significance

Selective Service v. Minnesota Public Interest Research Group - Uncle Sam And Eligible Young Men

Under section 3 of the Military Selective Service Act, the president of the United States is empowered to require every male citizen and resident alien in the country between the ages of 18 and 26 to register for military service under the draft. On 2 July 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed Presidential Proclamation No. 4771, which required all young men to register within 30 days of their eighte…

Selective Service v. Minnesota Public Interest Research Group - Questions Of Punitive Intent And Compulsion

By a vote of 6-2 the Court reversed the ruling of the lower court. Chief Justice Burger, writing for the Court, addressed the two issues under debate: the bill of attainder question and the Fifth Amendment question. On both counts, he found 12(f) fully constitutional, an opinion in which Justices O'Connor, Rehnquist, Stevens, and White joined, and with which Powell concurred in part while concurri…

Selective Service v. Minnesota Public Interest Research Group - Marshall's Dissent: "a De Facto Classification Based On Wealth"

Justice Brennan issued a short dissenting opinion, wherein he stated that he would affirm the lower court's judgment because in his view section 12(f) "compels those students seeking financial aid who have not registered with the Selective Service in timely fashion to incriminate themselves and thereby violates the Fifth Amendment." For the rest, he deferred to Justice Marshall. The latter, in a m…

Selective Service v. Minnesota Public Interest Research Group - Impact

Several authors writing in law journals soon after Selective Service responded with alarm. Hence Anthony L. Cogswell concluded a 1985 article in the Thurgood Marshall Law Review with the statement "It is possible that Selective Service System may have a chilling effect on claims brought under the Fifth Amendment." Cheryl V. Cunningham, writing in the Loyola Law Review, sounded a more muted tone: n…

Selective Service v. Minnesota Public Interest Research Group - Financial Aid Conditions

The conditions that a student must meet to receive financial aid can vary from state to state and from school to school. On the federal level, the United States Department of Education sets various conditions for both schools and students to qualify for federal funds. Registration for selective service by all adult males over the age of eighteen is mandatory for male students to receive financial …

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User Comments

over 5 years ago

I just found out on my birthday no less that im not elegable for financial aid because i didnt fill out a card i knew little about. I just left my business and my wife because she cheated. Im trying to start over and now i cant, i have little money and im 29 today i cant afford to pay loans till im 40. I need help but i dont know what to do.