The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to review a constitutional challenge to the 40-year-old federal law requiring men, but not women, to register for the draft.

Congress is “actively considering the scope” of the registration requirement, and the justices themselves in 1981 made clear that the court “should defer to Congress where possible in this sensitive military context,” Elizabeth Prelogar, acting U.S. solicitor general, told the court in the Justice Department’s filing.