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An acquaintance of mine has signed up for the US army and is now in his first six months, I guess what's called basic training. He was not allowed to bring books and asked us to send him reading material.

A military website states for basic training:

Dice, playing cards, dominoes, magazines, newspapers and books will be confiscated.

(For completeness: There is an exemption for one religious book.) I understand that there may be little time or remaining energy in boot camp to read but is there an official rationale which was brought forward when the regulation was instated?

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    Are you asking about what might be the "rationale" to forbid books (which has no legal basis and is an opinion), or the legal basis that allows the Army to forbid books in basic training? – BlueDogRanch Oct 26 '20 at 2:21
  • @BlueDogRanch Usually a law or other regulation is the result of a process, typically involving an exchange of arguments. Even a proposed law unanimously considered reasonable and necessary is typically (I think also in the U.S.) accompanied by a statement providing a reason for it -- if I'm not mistaken a rationale is actually a requirement for the validity of a new law. These reasons are part of the lawmaking, aid in its interpretation and are hence on topic. Now the military regulations specifying allowed items are not laws but may have been instated with similar official reasons. – Peter - Reinstate Monica Oct 26 '20 at 3:54
  • @BlueDogRanch I edited the question to make clear that I am not interested in private opinions but in an official rationale. – Peter - Reinstate Monica Oct 26 '20 at 3:56
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    I’m voting to close this question because it belongs on history.stackexchange.com or politics.stackexchange.com – BlueDogRanch Oct 26 '20 at 4:50
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    @BlueDogRanch Possible that other sites fit better. But I would maintain in general that the lawmaking process (e.g. debates between lawmakers, anything they wrote regarding pending legislation) etc. are on topic here. Obviously we are at an overlap with politics and often history; but any law scholar would know the Federalist Papers.and they are surely on topic here, to name an example. – Peter - Reinstate Monica Oct 26 '20 at 5:07

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