Editing Conscription (section)

===Involuntary servitude===
[[File:Anti Civil War Draft Rioters in Lexington Avenue New York 1863.jpg|thumb|200px|Rioters attacking a building during the [[New York City draft riots|New York anti-draft riots]] of 1863]]
Many [[American libertarian]]s oppose conscription and call for the abolition of the [[Selective Service System]], arguing that [[impressment]] of individuals into the armed forces amounts to [[involuntary servitude]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dehnbase.org/lpus/library/platform/catm.html|title=Conscription and the Military|work=Libertarian Party|publisher=www.dehnbase.org}}</ref> For example, [[Ron Paul]], a former U.S. [[Libertarian Party (United States)|Libertarian Party]] presidential nominee,  has said that conscription "is wrongly associated with [[patriotism]], when it really represents slavery and involuntary servitude".<ref>U.S. Representative [[Ron Paul]] [http://antiwar.com/paul/?articleid=5651 Conscription Is Slavery], antiwar.com, January 14, 2003.</ref> The philosopher [[Ayn Rand]] opposed conscription, opining that "of all the statist violations of individual rights in a mixed economy, the military draft is the worst. It is an abrogation of rights. It negates man's fundamental right—the right to life—and establishes the fundamental principle of [[statism]]: that a man's life belongs to the state, and the state may claim it by compelling him to sacrifice it in battle."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/draft.html|title=Draft|work=aynrandlexicon.com|access-date=15 October 2016}}</ref>

In 1917, a number of radicals{{who|date=May 2021}} and anarchists, including [[Emma Goldman]], challenged the new draft law in federal court, arguing that it was a violation of the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]]'s prohibition against slavery and involuntary servitude. However, the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the draft act in the case of ''[[Arver v. United States]]'' on 7 January 1918, on the ground that the [[Constitution of the United States|Constitution]] gives [[United States Congress|Congress]] the power to [[declare war]] and to raise and support armies. The Court also relied on the principle of the reciprocal rights and duties of citizens. "It may not be doubted that the very conception of a just government in its duty to the citizen includes the reciprocal obligation of the citizen to render military service in case of need and the right to compel."<ref>John Whiteclay Chambers II, ''To Raise an Army: The Draft Comes to Modern America'' (1987) pp. 219–20</ref>