Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)

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From Draft NOtices, April-June 2025

— Em Padilla

At the start of his second presidential term, Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14183, “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” effectively banning Transgender military personnel. The signing came on the heels of Trump’s presidential campaign that demonized the Transgender community via television advertisements, social media posts, and inflammatory rhetoric on the campaign trail. Moreover, the Executive Order and its ensuing policy are an expansion of the work the Trump administration did during his first term between 2017 and 2021 to institute a ban on service by Transgender military personnel. The current political moment has established a dangerous precedent for Transgender people in the United States via anti-trans legislation, violent rhetoric, and political targeting. The banning of Transgender military members speaks to the broader implications of increased transphobic legislative and policy shifts over the last several years. The issues of the current trans military ban are reflective of the precarious conditions trans people have and continue to face in the civilian sector.

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From Draft NOtices, January-March 2025

— Rick Jahnkow

A proposal by the Selective Service System to begin automatic registration of young men for any future military draft almost made it into the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Both the U.S. Senate and House of Representative had previously included the proposal in their versions of the NDAA, but language for it was deleted by the joint conference committee that met to produce a final version of Act. Selective Service was counting on automatic registration to reverse the growing rate of young men who are not complying with the legal requirement to register themselves.

There was also a proposal in the NDAA, approved by the U.S. Senate, that would have expanded draft registration to include young women. It was also rejected by the joint conference committee; however, it's not the first time such a proposal has been attached to the annual NDAA and, thus, it could very well come up again in the future.

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From Draft NOtices, January-March 2025

Book review: They Came for the Schools: One Town’s Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for America’s Classrooms.

— Isidro Ortiz, PhD

Written by acclaimed investigative journalist Mike Hixenbaugh, this book is worth an earnest read because of its focus, timeliness and documentation. It will be of interest to a diverse audience, especially those concerned with public schools and their roles and impact on youth development in society, and how elements of the Right have managed to achieve political power.

COMD, Project YANO and other organizations engaged in counter-recruitment and anti-militarism work have long recognized public schools as sites of ideological and political contestation. Fueled by this understanding, they have struggled to influence policies and practices like the involuntary placement of students in JROTC. Regrettably, as this book makes clear, they have not been the only ones to recognize the role of schools in shaping the country’s political climate.

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Ninth CIRCUIT COURT RULING: CONFRONTING MILITARISM BY USING EQUAL ACCESS TO HIGH SCHOOLS

When the military comes to your local high school, you have a legal right to give students an opposing view. This has been the position taken by federal district courts in Florida, Pennsylvania and Illinois and two federal appellate courts. The most broadly-worded decision came from a case that COMD took to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the 1980s. Here is the background:

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