Law Student Fights Draft; Pleads Sex Discrimination

"The classification of women as unfit for military service is without reason and unconstitutional." says a lawyer who is challenging the constitutionality of the 1967 Selective Service Act on behalf of four men, including one Harvard student, charged with failing to report for induction.

The lawyer, Henry E. Silvergate, is also filing for dismissal of the case on the grounds that the Vietnam war has not been declared by Congress and is a violation of international law, and that the Boston grand jury which handed down the indictment is not representative of the population.

The grand jury indicted 25 men on Sept. 10 for refusal to report for induction. According to Silvergate, this is the first such indictment in over tow years.

Harvard Student

A Harvard law student, Jerome M. Garchik, is among those indicted. In his case, which comes before Judge W. Arthur Garrity next Monday, the defense contends that "had women been subject to conscription at the time when the defendant's Selective Service board issued him his induction notice, his position in the order of call might have been such that he would not have been ordered for induction at any time."

Questioned about the case yesterday, Garchik said, "I thought the whole sex business was pretty funny at first, but the more I think about the war, the less funny it gets,"