United States v. Grieme, 7967

Citation128 F.2d 811
Decision Date09 June 1942
Docket NumberNo. 7967,7968.,7967
PartiesUNITED STATES v. GRIEME. SAME v. SADLOCK.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (3rd Circuit)

Abram Waks, of Paterson, N. J., for appellants.

Vincent E. Hull, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Newark, N. J. (Charles M. Phillips, U. S. Atty., of Trenton, N. J., on the brief), for appellee.

Before BIGGS, JONES, and GOODRICH, Circuit Judges.

JONES, Circuit Judge.

The appellants, who were indicted and tried separately, were each convicted of a willful violation of Sec. 11 of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, 50 U.S.C.A. Appendix, § 311.1 Each has appealed from the respective judgments of sentence entered by the court below upon the several verdicts. As both cases present substantially similar facts and as the questions of law raised by the appellants are identical, the appeals were consolidated, on motion, by order of this court and will be disposed of in one opinion. Fundamentally, the question involved is whether a registrant under the Selective Service Act, who has deliberately refused to obey his draft board's order of induction, may defend to a charge of willfully violating the Act by showing that the board erred in classifying him.

Each of the appellants, both of whom are members of the religious sect known as Jehovah's Witnesses, registered under the Selective Service Act. Each filled out a questionnaire which he filed with his local draft board. Therein he set forth his membership in the religious sect which, as he averred, had ordained him as a minister for the purpose of expounding the sect's beliefs and distributing its tracts and pamphlets. He accordingly claimed exemption as a minister of religion and sought classification as such under IV-D. Each of the registrants also filled out and filed with his draft board the form provided for those claiming classification under IV-E as conscientious objectors. The draft board duly classified each of the registrants as a conscientious objector under class IV-E and sent them notices to that effect. Requests for reclassification as ministers of religion under IV-D having been refused by the local draft board, each of the registrants appealed to the county board of appeals, which sustained the action of the local draft board. Thereupon each of the registrants wrote to the office of the Director of the National Headquarters of the Selective Service System at Washington, D. C., seeking reclassification in accordance with his claim for exemption. Nothing more was done by National Headquarters with these letters than to transmit to the local draft board the registrant Sadlock's letter. In due course, the local draft board, continuing to find that the registrants were not entitled to classification as ministers of religion, sent each a notice to appear on a day certain for induction as a conscientious objector for the performance of work of national importance of a noncombatant nature. Each of the registrants knowingly and deliberately refused to obey the local draft board's orders of induction. Their indictment for a willful violation of Sec. 11 of the Selective Service Act followed.

At trial the government's proofs embraced the record facts with respect to each of the registrants, to which we have already made reference. In defense, each of the registrants offered to prove that he was an ordained minister of the Jehovah's Witnesses, this, for the avowed purpose of establishing error as the result of arbitrary and capricious conduct on the part of the local draft board in classifying the registrants, who urged that the draft board's alleged error justified them in refusing to obey the board's order of induction and that therefore they were not guilty of willful violation of the Selective Service Act.

The learned trial judge excluded the particular matter proffered in defense, refused to charge the jury, as requested, that if the registrants should have been classified under IV-D rather than IV-E, their failure to comply with the draft board's order of induction was not a violation of the Act, and instructed the jury to disregard that portion of the summation by defendants' counsel wherein he argued to the same effect as his request for charge which had been refused. We think that the matter offered by the defendants, relating, as it did, to the draft board's exercise of its discretion in its administration of the Selective Service Act, was wholly irrelevant and immaterial to the charge contained in the indictment and that the action of the trial court was proper.

Section 10(a) (2) of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, 50 U.S.C.A. Appendix, § 310(a) (2), provides in part here material that: "* * * Such local draft boards * * * shall have power within their respective jurisdictions to hear and determine, subject to the right of appeal to the appeal boards * * *, all questions or claims with respect to inclusion for, or exemption or deferment from, training and service under this Act of all individuals within the jurisdiction of such local boards. The decisions of such local boards shall be final except where an appeal is authorized in accordance with such rules and regulations as the President may prescribe."

The courts have uniformly ruled that the findings whereon draft boards base their decisions are final and may not be disturbed by the courts unless it appears that the person affected thereby has not been afforded a full and fair hearing or unless the members of the local draft board acted contrary to law or abused the discretion reposed in them by the statute. United States ex rel. Pasciuto v. Baird, D.C.E.D.N.Y., 39 F.Supp. 411, 413; United States ex rel. Broker v. Baird, D.C.E.D. N.Y., 39 F.Supp. 392, 394; United States ex rel. Errichetti v. Baird, D.C.E.D.N.Y., 39 F.Supp. 388, 391, 392; United States ex rel. Filomio v. Powell, D.C.N.J., 38 F.Supp. 183, 189; Dick v. Tevlin, D.C.S.D.N.Y., 37 F.Supp. 836, 838. A similar rule had been evolved by court decision under the Selective Draft Act of 1917, 50 U.S.C.A. Appendix, § 201 et seq. Arbitman v. Woodside, 4 Cir., 258 F. 441, 442; United States ex rel. Pascher v. Kinkhead, 3 Cir., 250 F. 692, 694; Boitano v. District Board, D.C.N.D.Cal., 250 F. 812, 813. No jurisdiction is conferred upon the courts by the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 50 U.S.C.A. Appendix, § 301 et seq., to review the findings of local draft...

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52 cases
  • Estep v. United States Smith v. Same
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • February 4, 1946
    ...F.2d 1; Gibson v. United States, 8 Cir., 1945, 149 F.2d 751; Koch v. United States, 4 Cir., 1945, 150 F.2d 762. 16 See United States v. Grieme, 3 Cir., 128 F.2d 811; United States v. Kauten, 2 Cir., 133 F.2d 703; United States v. Mroz, 7 Cir., 136 F.2d 221; Biron v. Collins, 5 Cir., 145 F.2......
  • Kiyoshi Hirabayashi v. United States
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • June 21, 1943
    ...parte Stewart, D.C., 47 F.Supp. 410; United States v. Smith, D.C., 48 F.Supp. 842; Ex parte Robert, D.C., 49 F.Supp. 131; United States v. Grieme, 3 Cir., 128 F.2d 811; Fletcher v. United States, 5 Cir., 129 F.2d 262; Drumheller v. Berks County Local Board No. 1, 3 Cir., 130 F.2d 610, 612. ......
  • United States v. Cain, 418.
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit
    • August 15, 1944
    ...248 F. 865, L.R.A. 1918E, 1015; Brown v. Spelman, D.C. E.D.N.Y., 254 F. 215; Napore v. Rowe, 9 Cir., 256 F. 832; cf. United States v. Grieme, 3 Cir., 128 F.2d 811; Goff v. United States, 4 Cir., 135 F.2d 610, 611; Ex parte Cohen, D.C.E.D.Va., 254 F. 711; Application of Greenberg, D.C.N. J.,......
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    • July 6, 1945
    ...of the Selective Service Act. In one of the earlier decisions applying the Selective Service Act, this Court said in United States v. Grieme, 3 Cir., 1942, 128 F.2d 811, 815: "We think it is clear that, if a local draft board acts in an arbitrary and capricious manner or denies a registrant......
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