Court Opinion

ID: 9429760
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:27:48.757931+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:21.397624
License: Public Domain

Justice Powell,
concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.
I do not disagree with the holding or, indeed, with most of the Court’s opinion. As I view this case, however, the bill of attainder issue can and should be disposed of solely on the ground that § 12(f) of the Military Selective Service Act, as added by § 1113(a) of the Department of Defense Authorization Act of 1983, is not punitive legislation.
Unless § 12(f) is punitive in its purpose and effect, there is no bill of attainder. Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, 433 U. S. 425, 472 (1977). The term “punitive” connotes punishment as for a crime. Young men who knowingly have failed to comply with the registration requirements of the Selective Service Act have committed a crime *860for which the Act itself provides the only punishment.1 Section 12(f) is in no sense punitive; it authorizes no punishment in any normal or general acceptance of that familiar term. Rather, it provides a benefit at the expense of taxpayers generally for those who request and qualify for it. There is no compulsion to request the benefit. No minority or disfavored group is singled out by Congress for disparate treatment.
Section 12(f) applies broadly and equally to every male citizen and resident alien who upon attaining 18 years of age is required by Presidential order to register with the Selective Service.2 As its legislative history makes clear, § 12(f) was enacted to encourage compliance with the Military Selective Service Act, leaving punishment for failure to comply entirely to the provisions of the Act itself and to the normal enforcement provisions provided by law. The Court observes that Congress by § 12(f) has adopted a “rational means” to encourage compliance with law. Ante, at 854. It is encouragement only; not compulsion. Moreover, the interest of Government — indeed of the people of our country— *861in providing for national security is compelling. It has been recognized as such from the earliest days of the Republic.3 The Preamble of the Constitution declares that one of the Framers' purposes was to “provide for the common defence.”4
As I find that § 12(f) is punitive neither in its purpose nor in its effect, it is unnecessary in my view to reach the other arguments addressed by the Court on the bill of attainder issue.5 I add, however, that I do not disagree with the *862Court’s reasoning, except to the extent it relies upon the Secretary’s regulation that “interprets” the 1983 Act. In view of the compelling interest of Government, the constitutionality of § 12(f) does not depend upon this interpretation.
In sum, I join Parts I, II-B, III, and IV of the Court’s opinion, and its judgment.

 Section 12 of the Military Selective Service Act provides, in relevant part:
“[A]ny person who . . . evades or refuses registration or service in the armed forces or any of the requirements of this title ... or who in any manner shall knowingly fail or neglect or refuse to perform any duty required of him under or in the execution of this title, or rules, regulations, or directions made pursuant to this title . . . shall, upon conviction in any district court of the United States of competent jurisdiction, be punished by imprisonment for not more than five years or a fine of not more than $10,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment. . . 50 U. S. C. App. § 462(a).

 Young men in the United States are required only to register for military service when most of the other major countries of the world require this service. In the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, for example, the following countries have compulsory military service: Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, and West Germany. Switzerland also has compulsory service as do — of course — all the Communist countries. See The International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 1983-1984 (1983).

 The Federalist Papers, the essays arguing in favor of adoption of the Constitution, are replete with emphasis on the need for a national government to provide for defense by raising and maintaining armed forces. In John Jay’s prescient Paper, No. 4, he observed: The “safety of the people of America against dangers from foreign forces depends not only on [our] forbearing to give just causes of war to other nations, but also on their placing and continuing themselves in such a situation as not to invite hostility ... . It is too true, however disgraceful it may be to human nature, that nations in general will make war whenever they have a prospect of getting anything by it; [and] absolute monarchs will often make war when their nations are to get nothing by it . . . .” The Federalist No. 4, pp. 18-19 (J. Cooke ed. 1961) (emphasis in original).
Many of the opponents of the national union argued against “the raising of armies in time of peace.” Responding to this argument, Alexander Hamilton answered that the “United States would then exhibit the most extraordinary spectacle which the world has yet seen — that of a nation incapacitated by its constitution to prepare for defence before it was actually invaded.” The Federalist No. 25, p. 161 (J. Cooke ed. 1961). Hamilton also spoke of the danger of “expos[ing] our property and liberty to the mercy of foreign invaders and invit[ing] them, by our weakness, [to attack our country].” Ibid.; see also The Federalist No. 24 (A. Hamilton).

 Article I, § 8, of the Constitution expressly empowers Congress, in a single clause, “to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States.”

 In support of their contention that § 12(f) is a form of punishment, ap-pellees cite Ex parte Garland, 4 Wall. 333 (1867), Cummings v. Missouri, 4 Wall. 277 (1867), and United States v. Lovett, 328 U. S. 303 (1946). In each of these cases, the Court held that “ ‘a legislative decree of perpetual exclusion’ from a chosen vocation” was “punishment” for purposes of the Bill of Attainder Clause. Id., at 316. Those cases are inapposite here. Section 12(f) does not restrict in any way appellees’ choice of vocations or otherwise restrict the exercise of any constitutional right. It merely pro*862vides that those men who wish to receive Title IV aid must first comply with the registration laws.