Moral waiver A moral waiver is an action by United States armed forces officials to accept , for induction into one of the military services , a recruit who is in one or more of a list of otherwise disqualifying situations . The mechanism dates from at least the mid - 1960s , and was by no later than 1969 part of Army Regulation 601 - 270 . , the " major revision " effective in March 2007 and titled " Military Entrance Processing Station ( MEPS ) " remains in effect ; in that revision , Chapter 9 ( " Processing of Selective Service System Registrants " ) , Section III ( " Determination of Moral Qualifications and Waivers " ) is primarily concerned with moral waiver . Each disqualifying situation involves at least convictions for multiple minor traffic offenses , or conviction of a more serious charge . The waiver - granting official would be either the commanding officer of the induction center , or the commander of the national induction - center system ; the regulations permit even partial discretion as to which of the two applies only in the case of serious juvenile offenses : for ( where the quotation marks are part of the regulation ) , the induction center commander may either reject the inductee on that commander ' s own authority , or submit the case for consideration of a moral waiver by the national commander . A single adult felony conviction could be subject to moral waiver , at the discretion of the national commander , but multiple ones are completely disqualifying . Popular culture . The Group W bench , a key element of Arlo Guthrie ' s 1967 folk song and extended monologue " Alice ' s Restaurant " , is a reference to the moral waiver provision — the " W " stands for " waiver " ; he described that key element of the work as a waiting area where he mingled with other potential inductees awaiting consideration under moral waiver . The Guthrie work made the expression " Group W bench " ( or occasionally simply " Group W " ) a catchphrase for non - conformity . Various Web sites , an analysis , modeling and research company , and a well established " eclectic boutique " in New Haven , Connecticut , take their names from it . In the TV series Lie to Me Season 1 Episode 2 titled Moral Waiver , Sgt Scott was accepted into the military despite having a long list of minor offences . Potential effects in Iraq - War era . In the 2000s , maintaining higher troop levels in the face of higher casualties required two changes in the army . Tours of duty were increased and a higher fraction of volunteers were inducted via moral waivers . A Defense Department sponsored report described increased length of tours leading to higher stress which increase manifestations of anger and disrespect for civilians . Increasing use of moral waivers has implications for killing of noncombatants : John D . Hutson , dean and president of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in New Hampshire and former judge advocate general of the Navy , said the military must tread carefully in deciding which persons with criminal histories to accept . He says that there is a reason why allowing people with criminal histories into the military has long been the exception rather than the rule , and