Conscription, Conscientious Objection, and Draft Resistance in American History

Jerry Elmer was a Vietnam-era draft resister and a national leader in the peace movement. Later, he was the only convicted felon in his class at Harvard Law School. He has published extensively on peace movements and legal issues.

• AcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsAbbreviationsIntroduction1 Background and Context1 The United States Constitution2 The Issue of Enumerated Powers3 Civil War Conscription Antecedents2 The Civil War: the Union1 The Statute2 Enrollment Refusal3 Draft Refusal4 Amendments to the Conscription Statute of 18635 Bounties6 Conscientious Objectors7 Legal Cases Pertaining to the Conscription Statute8 Conclusion3 The Civil War: the Confederacy1 The First Confederate Conscription Statutes2 General Responses to Confederate Conscription3 New Conscription Statutes, December 1863–February 18644 Official State Exemptions5 Armed Resistance6 The March 1865 Statute7 Legal Cases Pertaining to the Conscription Statute8 Conclusion4 World War I1 The Statute2 The Espionage Act of 1917 and Sedition Act of 19183 Registration and Opposition to It4 The Draft and Opposition to It5 The Slacker Raids6 Conscientious Objection7 Draft Prosecutions during World War I8 Legal Cases Pertaining to the Conscription Statute9 Conclusion5 World War II1 The Statute2 The Draft in Operation3 Conscientious Objectors4 Civilian Public Service5 Controversies Regarding Civilian Public Service6 Resisters7 The End of the World War II Draft8 Legal Cases Pertaining to the Conscription Statute9 Conclusion6 The Cold War and the Korean War1 The 1948 Congressional Debate2 The 1948 Conscription Statute3 The 1950 Congressional Debate and Conscription Statute4 The Doctors’ Draft (1950) and Other Draft Laws, 1951–635 The Draft in Operation6 Conscientious Objectors7 Resisters8 National Service Board for Religious Objectors, the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, and the National Council against Conscription9 The 1948 Statute and Segregation in the Military10 Legal Cases Pertaining to the Conscription Statute11 Conclusion7 The Vietnam War Era1 Early Demonstrations and Preliminary Legal Skirmishes2 The 1967 Conscription Statute3 Nixon, the Lottery, and the End of the Draft4 Evaders5 Conscientious Objectors6 Draft Resistance7 The Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority and the Spock-Coffin Indictment8 The Draft Board Raids9 Prosecutions10 Legal Cases Pertaining to the Conscription Statute11 Conclusion8 Conclusion1 Channeling2 Is the Draft Unconstitutional?3 Is there a Constitutional Right to Conscientious Objection?Select BibliographyIndex

"Elmer's narrative is clear and readable and could well serve as the basis for a university course on US conscription history and challenges to it. [...] It well deserves a place in the canon of American peace history." – Donald W. Maxwell, in: Peace & Change (May 7th, 2024), p. 1-4“Jerry Elmer is the right writer to tell the story. At the age of 18 during the U.S. war in Vietnam, he publicly refused to register for the draft […] Elmer not only describes the conscription laws of each period and the ways in which COs (conscientious objectors) and resisters were treated, he provides lawyerly analyses of the Supreme Court challenges in each era.” – Arnie Alpert, in: Waging Nonviolence (December 1st, 2023)“The book represents the first time anyone has presented the entire history of conscription in America, from pre-Revolutionary War militias through the end of the draft, in January 1973… original sources include government documents obtained by Freedom of Information Act requests, sources that have been disregarded or missed by earlier historians writing on these topics.” – Margaret E. Curran, in: Rhode Island Bar Journal (November 2023) "Elmer draws on his career as an attorney to argue his points as if he were trying to win a legal case. And he writes with passion. [...] The result is by far the most comprehensive and thorough book about conscription in the United States." – Robert Levering, in: Friends Journal (June/July 2024)