Gee v. United States

• Decision Date: 17 May 1971
• Docket Number: No. 362,362
• Citation: 402 U.S. 479,29 L.Ed.2d 47,91 S.Ct. 1565
• Parties: Vincent Francis McGEE, Jr., Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

402 U.S. 479

91 S.Ct. 1565

29 L.Ed.2d 47

Vincent Francis McGEE, Jr., Petitioner,

v UNITED STATES.

No. 362.

Argued Feb. 23, 1971.

Decided May 17, 1971.

Syllabus

Petitioner applied in 1966 for conscientious objector status to his local Selective Service board, which advised him that his claim would be passed on when his student deferment expired. His board was told in 1967 that petitioner had been accepted for a graduate program where, in petitioner's own view, he would 'probably qualify' for a theological exemption. However, no request for ministerial student status was made, nor was pertinent supporting information presented. Petitioner refused to fill out a current information questionnaire sent to him on his graduation from college, announcing that he would not cooperate with the Selective Service System. Following the local board's subsequent reclassification of petitioner I—A, he did not seek a personal appearance before the board or appeal board review. Petitioner thereafter refused to submit to induction, for which, along with other draft law violations, he was prosecuted and convicted. The Court of Appeals, rejecting petitioner's defense that the local board had erred in its classification, affirmed. Held: Petitioner's failure to exhaust his administrative remedies jeopardized the interest of the Selective Service System, as the administrative agency responsible for classifying registrants, in developing the facts and using its expertise to assess his claims to exempt status and thus bars petitioner's defense that he was erroneously classified. McKart v. United States, 395 U.S. 185, 89 S.Ct. 1657, 23 L.Ed.2d 194, factually distinguished. Pp. 483—491.

426 F.2d 691, affirmed.

Alan H. Levine, New York City, for petitioner.

William Bradford Reynolds for respondent, pro hac vice, by special leave of Court.

Mr. Justice MARSHALL delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petitioner was convicted of failing to submit to induction and other violations of the draft laws. His principal defense involves the contention that he had been incorrectly classified by his local Selective Service board. The Court of Appeals ruled that this defense was barred because petitioner had failed to pursue and exhaust his administrative remedies. We granted certiorari. 400 U.S. 864, 91 S.Ct. 101, 27 L.Ed.2d 103 (1970), to consider the applicability of the 'exhaustion of administrative remedies' doctrine in the circumstances of this case.

I

In February 1966, while attending the University of Rochester, petitioner applied to his local Selective Service board for conscientious objector status. In support of his claim to that exemption he submitted the special form for conscientious objectors (SSS Form 150), setting forth his views concerning participation in war.¹ The board continued petitioner's existing classification—student de- ferment—and advised him that the conscientious objector claim would be passed upon when student status no longer applied.

In April 1967 petitioner wrote to President Johnson, Johnson, enclosing the charred remnants of his draft cards and declaring his conviction that he must 'sever every link with violence and war.' The letter included a statement that petitioner had 'already been accepted for graduate study in a program where I would probably qualify for the theological deferment.' A copy of the letter was forwarded to the local board; the board continued petitioner's student deferment. Petitioner graduated in June 1967, and thereafter the board sent him a current information questionnaire (SSS Form 127), which asked inter alia for specific information concerning his future educational plans and generally for any information he thought should be called to the board's attention. Petitioner returned the questionnaire unanswered and announced in a cover letter that henceforth he would adhere to a policy of non-cooperation with the Selective Service System.

In September 1967 the board reviewed petitioner's file, rejected the pending conscientious objector claim,² and reclassified petitioner I—A. In response to his reclassification petitioner sought neither a personal appearance before the local board nor review by the appeal board. Indeed, pursuant to his policy of noncooperation, he returned to the board, unopened, the communication notifying him of the reclassification and of his right to appear before the local board, to confer with the Government appeal agent, and to appeal. Petitioner did not appear for a physical examination ordered to take place in October 1967. He did respond to an order to appear for induction in January 1968, and he took a physical examination at that time. However, he refused to submit to induction.

Petitioner was prosecuted, under § 12(a) of the Military Selective Service Act of 1967, 62 Stat. 622, as amended, 50 U.S.C. App. § 462(a) (1964 ed., Supp. V) and applicable Selective Service regulations,³ for failing to submit to induction (count I), failing to report for a pre-induction physical examination (count II), failing to keep possession of a valid classification notice (count III), and failing to submit requested information relevant to his draft status (count IV). Petitioner was convicted on all four counts and sentenced to two years' imprisonment on each count, the sentences to run concurrently. Petitioner's principal defense to liability for refusing induction⁴ was that the local board had erred in classifying him I—A.⁵ The Court of Appeals, with one judge dissenting, held that the defense of incorrect classification was barred because petitioner had failed to exhaust the administrative remedies available for correction of such an error. The conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals.

II

Two Terms ago, in McKart v. United States, 395 U.S. 185, 89 S.Ct. 1657, 23 L.Ed.2d 194 (1969), the Court surveyed the place of the exhaustion doctrine in Selective Service cases, and the policies that underpin the doctrine. As it has evolved since Falbo v. United States, 320 U.S. 549, 64 S.Ct. 346, 88 L.Ed. 305 (1944), and Estep v. United States, 327 U.S. 114, 66 S.Ct. 423, 90 L.Ed. 567 (1946), the doctrine when properly invoked operates to restrict judicial scrutiny of administrative action having to do with the classification of a registrant, in the case of a registrant who has failed to pursue normal administrative remedies and thus has side-stepped a corrective process which might have cured or rendered moot the very defect later complained of in court. Cf. Oestereich v. Selective Service System Local Board, 393 U.S. 233, 235—236, n. 5, 89 S.Ct. 414, 415—416, 21 L.Ed.2d 402 (1968); Gibson v. United States, 329 U.S. 338, 349—350, 67 S.Ct. 301, 306—307, 91 L.Ed. 331 (1946). McKart stands for the proposition that the doctrine is not to be applied inflexibly in all situations, but that decision also plainly contemplates situations where a litigant's claims will lose vitality because the litigant has failed to contest his rights in an administrative forum. The result in a criminal context is no doubt a substantial detriment to the defendant whose claims are barred. Still this unhappy result may be justified in particular circumstances by considerations relating to the integrity of the Selective Service classification process and the limited role of the courts in deciding the proper classification of draft registrants.⁶

A

After McKart the task for the courts, in deciding the applicability of the exhaustion doctrine to the circumstances of a particular case, is to ask 'whether allowing all similarly situated registrants to bypass (the administrative avenue in question) would seriously impair the Selective Service System's ability to perform its functions.' 395 U.S., at 197, 89 S.Ct., at 1665. McKart specified the salient interests that may be jeopardized by a registrant's failure to pursue administrative remedies. Certain failures to exhaust may deny the administrative system important opportunities 'to make a factual record' for purposes of classification, or 'to exercise its discretion or apply its expertise' in the course of decisionmaking. Id., at 194, 89 S.Ct., at 1663. There may be a danger that relaxation of exhaustion requirements, in certain circumstances, would induce 'frequent and deliberate flouting of administrative processes,' thereby undermining the scheme of decisionmaking that Congress has created. Id., at 195, 89 S.Ct., at 1663. And of course, a strict exhaustion requirement tends to ensure that the agency have additional opportunities 'to discover and correct its own errors,' and thus may help to obviate all occasion for judicial review. Ibid.

To be weighed against the interests in exhaustion is the harsh impact of the doctrine when it is invoked to bar any judicial review of a registrant's claims. Surely an insubstantial procedural default by a registrant should not shield an invalid order from judicial correction, simply because the interest in time-saving self-correction by the agency is involved. That single interest is conceivably slighted by any failure to exhaust, however innocuous the bypass in other respects, and McKart recognizes that the exhaustion requirement is not to be applied 'blindly in every case.' Id., at 201, 89 S.Ct., at 1666. McKart also acknowledges that the fear of 'frequent and deliberate flouting' can easily be overblown, since in the normal case a registrant would be 'foolhardy' indeed to withhold a valid claim from administrative scrutiny. Id., at 200, 89 S.Ct., at 1666. Thus the contention that the rigors of the exhaustion doctrine should be relaxed is not to be met by mechanical recitation of the broad interests usually served by the doctrine but rather should be assessed in light of a discrete analysis of the particular default in question, to see whether there is 'a governmental interest compelling enough' to justify the forfeiting of judicial review. Id., at 197, 89 S.Ct., at 1665.

In the McKart case, the focal interest for...