ABSTRACT
The issue in Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 US 57 (1981), was whether a military registration law applicable only to men violated the Constitution under provisions guaranteeing equal protection of the laws or due process of law. Several men sued Bernard Rostker, the director of the Selective Service System, arguing that male-only registration violated the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. That clause had been held by the Court to prohibit the national government from denying anyone the equal protection of the laws. Justice William H. Rehnquist declared for a six-justice Court majority that the decision to register only men was well within the powers of Congress. The Court had traditionally been loath to interfere with congressional power over military matters, he wrote. "Not only is the scope of Congress' constitutional power in this area broad, but the lack of competence on the part of the courts is marked," he said, explaining the Court's "healthy" deference to Congress.
