This study analyzes government's use of the Selective Service System's revocation of draft exemptions and deferments to punish outspoken critics of the Vietnam war. The author traces the development of a Selective Service scheme to deny draft‐eligible protesters their draft exemptions and deferments to punish their opposition to the war. The U.S. Supreme Court in Oestereich v. Selective Service System and subsequent cases denied the Selective Service System the authority to use punitive reclassification and quick induction to punish Vietnam war and draft protesters. In Oestereich, a local draft board revoked a divinity student's statutory exemption to the draft in an overt attempt to punish his symbolic speech, returning his draft card to protest the Vietnam war, and the Supreme Court held that the draft board's reclassification of Oestereich was a clearly lawless attempt to silence dissen