Legal Studies 397N Law and Public Policy Professor Arons November 7 2008 National Service Military Draft Memo Assignment Due Tuesday November 18th in class Those students who did not write the memorandum on reproductive freedom are required to write this memo on the military civilian service draft Your essay should be typed double spaced one inch margins 12 point font or smaller in memorandum format with numbered pages stapled at the top left President elect Barack Obama has created several working groups to advise him each exploring a particular issue as part of his Transition Team You have been hired as a staff member for the Draft Working Group which is dealing with the problem of whether the President elect should recommend to Congress that a military civilian service draft be established as part of the effort to encourage greater public involvement in solving the nation s problems and as part of strengthening the military once the Iraq War has been ended The chair of the Draft Working Group is Ben Arnold V He has given you the following assignment The President elect wants us to evaluate the Rangel bill as a way to decide whether a draft should be recommended by the new administration As you may know in January 2007 Congressman Charles Rangel of New York re introduced his bill entitled a Universal National Service Act The contents of the 2007 bill are identical to HR 163 which you have already received Other staffers are working on arguments for retaining the All Volunteer Force Your assignment is to help develop an analysis of some aspects of the idea that Rangel proposed and may propose again I therefore want you to write and submit to me a five page memo using references to materials from your public policy course in which you 1 make the strongest and most reasonable argument that you think can be made in favor of establishing a military draft together with a civilian national service draft AND 2 assuming that establishing a military civilian service draft will be recommended discuss EITHER A whether and under what circumstances conscientious objectors to war should receive exemptions from combat service and training OR B whether and under what circumstances college and university students should receive deferments on their obligation to do military or civilian service About Part 1 Since civilian service and military service are included in the Rangel bill I am asking you for an argument in favor of this combined national civilian service and military draft In constructing this argument you may wish to briefly mention the weaknesses in the argument that you make so that I will be able to gauge its true strength as an argument But the emphasis of your response to Part 1 of the memo assignment must be on producing an argument in favor of national service and a military draft combined In your answer to Part 1 do not discuss the issue of CO exemptions or of higher education student deferments That you should save for Part 2 About Part 2 The Rangel bill contains provisions about conscientious objector exemptions and about higher education deferments For whichever issue you decide to analyze I am asking you to discuss whether the provisions in the Rangel bill are the best way to handle the issue or whether it should be handled in a different way If you recommend any change let me know why By separating Part 1 about whether the nation should have a combined military civilian service draft from Question 2 about what provision should be made for either CO s or student deferments your memo will help the working group decide whether to support the idea of establishing a national service draft and what provisions to recommend on the subject of conscientious objector exemptions or higher education deferments as part of the general national draft recommendation 1 In constructing the argument in favor of adopting a universal service draft and in analyzing the conscientious objector or higher education deferment issue please pay attention to two things especially First be sure that you refer explicitly to materials that have already been provided for your public policy class or that you may have discovered in your research You may use footnotes or in text parenthetical citations but be consistent in whichever format you choose for references Second try to include some discussion of at least one lesson that can be learned from the historical experience that the Nation has had with the draft in WWI or WWII or Vietnam The form of your memo should be To Mr Ben Arnold Chair Draft Working Group From your name Re Evaluation of Universal National Service and Military Draft and Provisions Concerning note here whether you have discussed conscientious objection or higher education deferments in response to Part 2 Date 11 18 08 2