It is not everyday that the President of the United States sends a lawyer to conscript Supergirl into military service, but when it happens, a father and daughter team does it. Let’s just say Lucy Lane needs an ethics lesson after preparing a memo for Kryptonian mandatory conscription that sounds like slavery.
How was Supergirl enslaved? General Lane proclaimed Supergirl was needed for a “mission” to test a weapons system. Moreover, the President had signed an Executive Order mandating Supergirl’s compliance, which required her to fight the android Red Tornado as a weapons test.
There are so many things wrong with this fact pattern that an attorney would be gleeful at the opportunity to sue the US Government in a 1983 action for violating Supergirl’s Civil Rights. As a preliminary matter, someone might argue, “Supergirl is not human and in the United States illegally, therefore, the government can do what it wants to her.”
This argument would be false. Anyone who is an “illegal alien” is still protected by the Constitution, and cannot be deprived of their liberty without due process of law. Just because someone might be illegally in the United States, does not give the Government license to violate their Civil Rights.
Supergirl being conscripted by Executive Order would mean there was a law upon which the President issued the Executive Order. See generally, Utah Ass’n of Counties v. Bush (D.Utah 2004) 316 F.Supp.2d 1172, 1184.
What bill of attainder was enacted specifically targeting super powered individuals or Supergirl specifically that was the basis of the Executive Order? The United States Constitution specifically prohibits bills of attainders, so any legislation authorizing the President to “order” Supergirl into service would be Unconstitutional on its face. USCS Const. Art. I, § 9, Cl 3.
The President could not invoke any Military Selective Service Act provision to draft Supergirl, because only men have to register for the Draft, which is not subject to an equal protection challenge. 50 USCS Appx § 453; Witt v. Dep’t of the Air Force (9th Cir. 2008) 548 F.3d 1264, 1278-1279. Supergirl not being a male, was not required to register for “The Draft” when she turned 18. As such, there would be no legal authority to “draft” Supergirl under the Military Selective Service Act.
The 13th Amendment specifically prohibits slavery in the United States. The military ordering Supergirl to fight an android for a weapons test on its face would violate the 13th Amendment’s prohibition on involuntary servitude. There was no offer of employment, no request, but an order for the Girl of Steel to enter mutual combat with an android to “test” it. This is simply no legal basis for such an Executive Order to command someone to be used in a military weapons test.
