Drafted Out of Service

One of those little-known facts about federal employment is that if you're a man, and you failed to register for the draft when you turned 18, you're ineligible to work for Uncle Sam. This ensnared Chris Freking, 39, a GS-12 technician at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, last year. It also hit Michael B. Elgin Jr., 42, an 18-year employee of the Internal Revenue Service in Boston, who was fired in 2007 despite an appeal for leniency on the part of the agency by, among others, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

Now, the Boston Globe reports, Elgin has filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging his dismissal, saying he was discriminated against because he is a man. (Women don't have to register for the draft.) But the IRS and the Office of Personnel Management aren't budging: those who fail to register must go, they say.