Draft Evasion

The act of willfully failing to comply with a legal obligation to register for or report for mandatory military conscription, distinguished from desertion, which concerns a person already serving who unlawfully leaves their post, and from a legally recognized status such as conscientious objection, which provides an exemption or alternative service option through an approved legal process rather than simple non-compliance. In the United States, failing to register with the Selective Service System as required of most male citizens and residents remains a federal felony under the Military Selective Service Act, though active criminal prosecution for non-registration has been rare in recent decades even as the requirement continues to be enforced indirectly by tying registration to eligibility for federal student aid and some federal employment. Draft evasion during the Vietnam War, when a substantial number of young American men avoided conscription by fleeing to Canada, obtaining a student or medical deferment, or refusing induction outright, remains among the most extensively studied instances of the offense, and President Jimmy Carter issued a blanket pardon in 1977 to most Vietnam-era draft evaders.