Pass in Review: Due Process and Judicial Scrutiny of Classification Decisions of the Selective Service System

American courts, faced with public resistance to conscription, have long attempted to strike a balance between the government's interest in compelling military service and the citizen's interest in resisting it. This Article traces the development of judicial review of administrative decisions in the conscription process. The Article first examines three historical periods in the development of standards of review. The Article then suggests that the requirement that the Selective Service System state reasons for the denial of a registrant's deferment request should not be based on the need to facilitate administrative decisions and judicial review, but on the registrant's right to due process.