Court Opinion

ID: 9458698
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:59:44.106137+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:52.068882
License: Public Domain

GIBBONS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I continue to adhere to the views which I expressed in my original dissent in this case. See 442 F.2d 1082, 1090 (3d Cir. 1971). As to the effect of the Supreme Court’s decision in Fein v. Selective Service System, 405 U.S. 365, 92 S.Ct. 1062, 31 L.Ed.2d 298 (1972), I continue to adhere to the interpretation of that decision set forth in my dissent in Strople v. Local Board No. 60, 466 F.2d 601 (3d Cir. 1972). The Fein case simply did not deal with the problem of administrative due process considered by the Supreme Court in Mulloy v. United States, 398 U.S. 410, 90 S.Ct. 1766, 26 L.Ed.2d 362 (1970), and by this court in Hunt v. Local Board No. 197, 438 F.2d 1128 (3d Cir. 1971) (per curiam). The majority opinion states:
“As indicated above, Morgan essentially argues that the Selective Service System erred in not granting him the III-A deferment to which he was entitled.” (at 136)
This is a misstatement of the pleadings and a procrustean attempt to force Morgan’s case into the mold of the Fein language. What Morgan actually complains of is that the local board, by the arbitrary device of casting an actual decision on this claim in the guise of a refusal to reopen, has deprived him of appeal rights available to registrants similarly situated. He alleges, in other words, that the local board has arrogated to itself both the original and appellate functions of the Selective Service administrative procedures, and that in doing so it has acted beyond its statutory jurisdiction. There is no question but that a local board has only the power “to hear and determine, subject to the right of appeal to the appeal boards herein authorized . . .”50 U.S.C. App. § 460(b)(3) (1970). The majority opinion, in order to force the case into the mold of the Fein language, concludes that the local board did “hear and determine”. But it equates that local board action with the full administrative procedures which were afforded to Dr. Fein, and it entirely ignores the fact that Morgan seeks, by mandamus, to be afforded the same appeal rights which Dr. Fein actually received. As Judge Hastie pointed out in his concurring opinion in Hunt v. Local Board No. 197, supra, at 1139, there is no conflict between § 10(b)(3) and 28 U.S.C. § 1361 (1970). Morgan seeks no more than an order compelling the Selective Service System to perform a mandatory duty. A mandamus directing that he be granted the right to an administrative appeal would not amount to pre-induction judicial review of his classification.
The majority opinion professes to find support for its interpretation of the Fein case in a quotation from a footnote in the decision of the Second Circuit in Levine v. Selective Service Local Board No. 18, 458 F.2d 1281 (2d Cir. 1972). *138In the same footnote, however, the Second Circuit says:
“While we profess some difficulty interpreting the holding in Fein in light of the facts in Fein (see id. 405 U.S. at 387, 92 S.Ct. 1062 (Marshall, J., dissenting)), because Levine’s section 1631.7(d)(5) claim in no way involves board discretion with respect to a deferment or an exemption, we conclude that Fein does not bar pre-induction review of this claim.” Id. at 1286 n. 19.
Levine is a mirror image of this case. It involves a claim that an induction order was issued at a time when the registrant’s liability for induction as a member of the Extended Priority Selection Group had expired. See 32 C.F.R. § 1631.7(d)(5) (1971). Whether or not his liability for induction had expired depended on whether or not the order issued “as soon as practicable.” The Government contended that the delay past April 1 in issuing the induction order was justified by the fact that Levine’s time for appeal from an actual reopening had not yet expired. Levine contended that the board had in fact refused to reopen. The court said:
“Thus whether the issuance of Levine’s induction order was blatantly lawless turns on whether the order was issued ‘as soon as practicable’. Whether the order was issued ‘as soon as practicable’ depends on whether Levine did have or did not have a right of appeal from the board’s decision as made known to Levine by the March 1st Form 110 that it was continuing Levine in Class I-A. Whether Levine had a right of appeal from this decision in turn depends on whether the board decided not to reopen (no right of appeal) or to reopen and not to reclassify (right of appeal).
The difficulty in resolving this last inquiry comes from the fact that a board can reopen a registrant’s classification and then place him right back into the same classification. With one relevant exception, such a ‘reclassification’ has all of the appearances and consequences of a refusal to reopen in the first place. The exception is of course that a registrant whose classification has been reopened has the right to a personal appearance and/or appeal. A registrant whose classification has not been reopened has no such rights.
Both parties rely on circumstantial evidence to prove what in fact the board decided. Levine argues that the December 1970 letters show that the board refused to reopen his classification and that the February 23rd hearing was clearly a courtesy hearing from which he could not have had a right of appeal. The government responds by pointing to the March 1st Form 110, which by the relevant regulations is required to be issued upon a reopening and on its face informs the registrant of his rights to a personal appearance and/or an appeal.” 458 F.2d at 1284-1285 (footnotes omitted).
The court remanded Levine’s ease for a hearing. It construed the Fein case as applicable only to those cases in which the registrant seeks review of board action involving discretion and judgment in determining facts and in arriving at a classification. It is clear that a local board has no discretion to deny appeal rights to a registrant who has presented a prima facie claim for reclassification. Mulloy v. United States, supra. The denial which Melchar claims is the same kind as that of which Levine complained. Levine claimed that his local board made an arbitrary determination that it had actually reopened his classification, when it had not, in order to extend his period of liability for induction. Morgan claims that his local board has made an arbitrary determination that it had not actually reopened his classification, when it had, in order to deprive him of appeal rights. If Fein is inapplicable to Levine’s case it is equally inapplicable to Morgan’s case.
In this court the issue is now foreclosed by Strople v. Local Board No. 60, supra. But this circuit’s interpretation *139of the Fein case is in conflict with that of the Second Circuit. Since I believe that Strople was wrongly decided, and that in this ease the majority has misconstrued the mandate of the Supreme Court on remand, I dissent in the hope that a higher authority will redirect us in the right path.