A moral waiver is an action by United States armed forces officials to accept, for induction into one of the military services, a recruit who is in one or more of a list of otherwise disqualifying situations.
[3][4] As of 2009[update], the "major revision" effective in March 2007 and titled "Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS)" remains in effect; in that revision, Chapter 9 ("Processing of Selective Service System Registrants"), Section III ("Determination of Moral Qualifications and Waivers")[5] is primarily[6] concerned with moral waiver.
A single adult felony conviction could be subject to moral waiver, at the discretion of the national commander, but multiple ones are completely disqualifying.
He described that key element of the work as a waiting area where he mingled with other potential inductees awaiting consideration for a waiver and stated that all sorts of crimes, ranging from rape, sodomy and assault with a deadly weapon down to littering (Guthrie's crime) could necessitate its use.
[10] John D. Hutson, dean and president of the Franklin Pierce Law Center (now the University of New Hampshire Law School) in New Hampshire and former judge advocate general of the US Navy, said the military must tread carefully in deciding which persons with criminal histories to accept.