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Doyle Julian JONES, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee

United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit1957-02-16No. No. 7354
241 F.2d 704

Summary

Holding. The conviction and sentence were affirmed. The local draft board and appeal boards' denial of Jones's conscientious objector claim was supported by substantial evidence in the record, and Jones was afforded a fair hearing; therefore, the courts may not second-guess the factual determinations made by the draft boards.

Doyle Julian Jones, a Jehovah's Witness, was convicted of refusing to report for military induction under the Universal Military Training and Service Act. At the time of his selective service registration in 1949, Jones did not claim conscientious objector status and was classified as III-A. After a regulatory change reclassified him as I-A, he claimed exemption as a conscientious objector for the first time. Both the local draft board and multiple appeal boards denied his claim. The court found his claim lacking in sincerity, noting as particularly damaging that Jones had sought and obtained employment at the Savannah River Atomic Energy Plant—a facility closely tied to national security—only a few months after first asserting his conscientious objector status, which the trial judge found fundamentally inconsistent with a genuine objection to participating in war.

Jones received multiple opportunities to present his case, including two personal appearances before the local board, two government hearings, and written submissions to the appeal board. The court emphasized that determinations of conscientious objector status are factual questions within the discretion of draft boards, and courts may not reweigh evidence or overturn draft board decisions unless there is no factual basis for the classification or the board has exceeded its jurisdiction or acted arbitrarily and unreasonably in violation of constitutional rights. On the record presented, the court found no basis to overturn the boards' decisions.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether a conscientious objector claim made for the first time after selective service reclassification can be denied when unsupported by prior conduct
  • Scope of judicial review of draft board classification decisions under the Universal Military Training and Service Act
  • Whether employment at a military-related atomic energy facility is inconsistent with a claimed conscientious objection to war

Procedural posture

Jones appealed his conviction and sentence for refusing induction after his conscientious objector claim was denied by the selective service system.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

PER CURIAM.

This is an appeal from a conviction and sentence for refusal to report for induction under the Universal Military Training and Service Act, 50 U.S.C.A. Appendix, § 451 et seq. Appellant is a member of the sect known as Jehovah’s Witnesses. He duly registered with the local selective service board in August 1949, making no claim at that time that he was a conscientious objector or minister, and was classed III-A (married). After a change in the applicable Selective Service regulation, he was reelassi-fied I-A and was ordered to report for physical examination, when for the first time he claimed exemption as a conscientious objector. This claim was denied by the local board and by the District Appeal Board, and again by the District Appeal Board after he had been afforded a hearing before a hearing officer of the Department of Justice. Upon refusal to submit to induction he was indicted in 1953 and, upon his raising the question that he had not been given a fair résumé of the FBI reports made in connection with the Department of Justice hearing, the case was continued and he was afforded another hearing, before which he was furnished a written ré-sumé of the FBI report furnished the hearing officer. He was given also a copy of the Justice Department’s advisory report and opportunity to make a written reply to it, and this he did in a lengthy letter to the Appeal Board. That Board again denied his claim and continued his I-A classification; and he again refused to be inducted into military service.

Appellant at the time of registration was a textile worker. Later he sought and obtained employment at the Hydrogen Bomb Plant near Aiken, S. C. As was well said by the District Judge in this connection:

“It also appears from the record that the defendant was employed for approximately a year at the Savannah River Plant of the United States Atomic Energy Plant Commission, commonly known locally as the ‘H-Bomb Plant’. I find that the defendant’s willingness to work at an installation so closely connected with the national security activities of the United States as the Savannah River Plant of the Atomic Energy Commission is peculiarly inconsistent with a claim of conscientious objection to participation in war in any form, White v. U. S., 9 Cir., 1954, 215 F.2d 782, 786, cer-tiorari denied 348 U.S. 970, 75 S.Ct. 528, 99 L.Ed. 755. This fact in itself to me appears sufficient to jus tify denial of the defendant’s claim. This is particularly true in view of the fact that the defendant sought and obtained employment at the Savannah River Plant only some three or four months after he first made his claim of conscientious objection.”

Whether appellant was a conscientious objector or not within the meaning of the act was a question of fact for the decision of the local draft board and the appeal boards; and, in the light of the record before us, we cannot say that the decisions of these boards was without substantial support in the evidence. Neither can it be said that appellant was denied a fair hearing. To quote the government’s brief:

“By the time of his second refusal to be inducted into the armed forces, the defendant’s case had thus received long and careful consideration by the Selective Service System and the Department of Justice. He had been twice classified I-A by his local board, both times by unanimous vote. His case had been before the Appeal Board three times, and each time the Appeal Board had unanimously denied his conscientious objector claim and continued his I-A classification. He had had two personal appearances before the local board. He had had two hearings before Government hearing officers — the second one entirely gratuitous on the part of the Government and intended to remove any possible doubt as to the adequacy of the first. His case had twice been reviewed by the Department of Justice. It had been reviewed at least once by the National Headquarters of the Selective Service System. Each of these individuals and agencies had, without exception, concluded that the defendant was not sincere in his claim for exemption as a conscientious objector and that consequently his claim should be denied.”

The case is fully and fairly reviewed, with all the evidentiary facts, in the opinion of the District Judge reported in 142 F.Supp. 806, and nothing need be added to what is there said. See, however, Miller v. United States, 4 Cir., 239 F.2d 148; Capehart v. United States, 4 Cir., 237 F.2d 388; Martin v. United States, 4 Cir., 190 F.2d 775, 777; Cox v. United States, 332 U.S. 442, 448-452, 68 S.Ct. 115, 92 L.Ed. 59; Estep v. United States, 327 U.S. 114, 122-123, 66 S.Ct. 423, 427, 90 L.Ed. 567. As said in the case last cited.

“The provision making the decisions of the local boards ‘final’ means to us that Congress chose not to give administrative action under this Act the customary scope of judicial review which obtains under other statutes. It means that the courts are not to weigh the evidence to determine whether the classification made by the local boards was justified. The decisions of the local boards made in conformity with the regulations are final even though they may be erroneous. The question of jurisdiction of the local board is reached only if there is no basis in fact for the classification which it gave the registrant. See Goff v. United States, 4 Cir., 135 F. 2d 610, 612.”

The case of Goff v. United States, 4 Cir., 135 F.2d 610, 612, cited by the Supreme Court in the passage quoted is a decision of this court wherein we said with respect to the power to hold the order of the draft board invalid:

“This does not mean that the court in a criminal proceeding may review the action of the board. That action is to be taken as final, notwithstanding errors of fact or law, so long as the board’s jurisdiction is not transcended and its action is not so arbitrary and unrea- . sonable as to amount to a denial of constitutional right.”

Affirmed.