October 4, 2026
EQUAL MEANS EQUAL has filed a new federal class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois challenging sex discrimination in federal Selective Service registration.
The case is brought by EQUAL MEANS EQUAL and EME member Sabrina Hamdan, a 19-year-old Northwestern University student who attempted to register for Selective Service and was rejected because she is a woman. The lawsuit challenges a federal law that requires men to register while excluding women solely on the basis of sex.
EQUAL MEANS EQUAL is not advocating for war or for the draft. Selective Service presents one of the clearest remaining examples of explicit sex-based treatment by the federal government: men must register; women cannot. The case seeks to ensure that women are represented directly in litigation concerning their own constitutional rights and obligations.
The lawsuit argues that sex-based discrimination by the federal government must receive the strongest constitutional protection. It asserts EQUAL MEANS EQUAL’s position that the Equal Rights Amendment is part of the U.S. Constitution and requires strict scrutiny of government discrimination based on sex. The case also challenges the exclusion of women under the equal protection component of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
The Illinois class action is part of EQUAL MEANS EQUAL’s National Equality Enforcement Directive (NEED), a coordinated national litigation strategy designed to pursue constitutional equality for women through carefully selected cases in multiple jurisdictions.
Selective Service is the vehicle. Constitutional equality is the issue.
READ THE ILLINOIS CLASS ACTION →
LEARN ABOUT NEED →
