On September 28, 2026, EQUAL MEANS EQUAL and Sabrina Hamdan filed a federal class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois challenging the federal government’s exclusion of women from Selective Service registration. Sabrina, a 19-year-old Northwestern University student, attempted to register and was rejected solely because she is a woman.
The lawsuit is brought not only on Sabrina’s behalf, but on behalf of a proposed class of all women ages 18–26 in the United States who are eligible for Selective Service registration but are excluded because of sex. It challenges that discrimination under the Equal Rights Amendment and the equal protection component of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, asking the court to recognize that sex-based government classifications must be subjected to strict scrutiny.
The case is part of EQUAL MEANS EQUAL’s broader national constitutional litigation strategy to secure judicial recognition and enforcement of women’s equality under the Constitution.
