Mass. Legislature Bill Attacks Vietnam War

If Massachusetts House bill 2396 were to pass the Legislature, Bay State youths could be exempted from service in the Vietnam war.

The measure says that no citizen of the state can be required to fight unless Congress had declared "a state of war."

The Judiciary Committee will hold a public hearing on the bill at 1 p.m. on Wednesday in room 222 at the State House. Supporters of the bill will present arguments to the committee, which will decide whether or not the issue should come to a vote before the Legislature.

Steven Worth, professor of Political Science and a supporter of the bill, said that it could bring about a Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the war.

If the measure passed, the Court would have to choose between the law's legitimacy and the Federal Government's legitimacy in waging the war without a formal declaration by Congress other than the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.