Editing Selective Service System (section)

===1948 to 1969===
{{see also|Berry Plan}}
The [[Military Selective Service Act|Selective Service Act of 1948]], enacted in June of that year, created a new and separate system, the basis for the modern system.<ref name=US_v_Groupp>{{cite court |litigants = United States v. Groupp |vol = 459 |reporter = F.2d |opinion = 178 |pinpoint = at para 4 |court = [[United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit|1st Cir.]] |date = 26 April 1972 |url = http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/459/459.F2d.178.71-1351.html |quote = }}</ref> All men 18 years and older had to register with the Selective Service. All men between the ages of 18 and 25 were eligible to be drafted for a service requirement of 21 months. This was followed by a commitment for either 12 consecutive months of active service or 36 consecutive months of service in the reserves, with a statutory term of military service set at a minimum of five years total. Conscripts could volunteer for military service in the regular United States Army for a term of four years or the Organized Reserves for a term of six years. Due to deep postwar budget cuts, only 100,000 conscripts were chosen in 1948. In 1950, the number of conscripts was greatly increased to meet the demands of the [[Korean War]] (1950–1953).{{cn|date=September 2022}}

The outbreak of the Korean War fostered the creation of the [[Military Selective Service Act|Universal Military Training and Service Act]] of 1951. This lowered the draft age from 19 to {{frac|18|1|2}}, increased active-duty service time from 21 to 24 months, and set the statutory term of military service at a minimum of eight years. Students attending a college or training program full-time could request an exemption, which was extended as long as they were students. A Universal Military Training clause was inserted that would have made all men obligated to perform 12 months of military service and training if the act was amended by later legislation. Despite successive attempts over the next several years, however, such legislation was never passed.

President [[John F. Kennedy]] set up {{Executive Order|11119}} (signed on 10 September 1963), granting an exemption from conscription for married men between the ages of 19 and 26. His vice president and later successor as president, [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], later rescinded the exemption for married men without children by {{Executive Order|11241}} (signed on 26 August 1965 and going into effect on midnight of that date). However, married men with children or other dependents and men married before the executive order went into effect were still exempt. President [[Ronald Reagan]] revoked both of them with {{Executive Order|12553}} (signed on 25 February 1986).

The [[Military Selective Service Act|Military Selective Service Act of 1967]] expanded the ages of conscription to the ages of 18 to 55. It still granted student deferments, but ended them upon either the student's completion of a four-year degree or his 24th birthday, whichever came first.