Court Opinion

ID: 9445439
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:28:56.761276+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:15.846763
License: Public Domain

HARTIGAN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
It seems that the main question in this ease is whether the appellant had the burden of establishing that the local board’s failure to appoint advisors to registrants and to post their names and addresses conspicuously in the local board office, as required by Selective Service Regulations § 1604.41(a), resulted in prejudice to him. I believe, as the district court concluded, that the burden was on appellant, and, further, that appellant failed to show that he suffered any prejudice due to the aforementioned failure of the local board to comply with the regulations.
Support for my conclusion that the burden of proof was on appellant can be found in Rowton v. United States, 6 Cir., 1956, 229 F.2d 421, 422, certiorari denied, 1956, 351 U.S. 930, 76 S.Ct. 788. In the Rowton case, where the registrants, after having been convicted for refusal to do civilian work in lieu of induction, contended on appeal that their local boards’ failure to post the names of advisors in compliance with the regulations denied them procedural due process of law, the Sixth Circuit, in affirming the convictions, stated, 229 F.2d at page 422: “Nowhere in the record do appellants [registrants] actually show that the failure of the local boards to post the names of advisors worked to their prejudice in any manner. * * * ” See also United *148States v. Mekolichick, 3 Cir., 1956, 234 F.2d 71, certiorari denied 77 S.Ct. 147.
The Simmons case, upon which my brethren rely in holding that the burden of proof was on the Government, in my opinion, presents a different situation from the facts here. There the registrant was denied a resume of the Federal Bureau of Investigation report which resulted in his being deprived of a hearing as required by statutory provision. Here the failure of the local board concerned a regulation which soon after was made optional with the local board.1 I submit this was “an incidental infringement of technical rights”, see Simmons v. United States, supra, 348 U.S. at page 406, 75 S.Ct. at page 402, which could not result in placing the heavy burden of proving a negative on the Government. See also United States v. Mekolichick, supra, 234 F.2d at page 74 (where failure to post advisors was stated as being a “mere technical irregularity”).
I turn now to the question of whether the appellant sustained his burden of proof by showing that the aforementioned failure of the local board resulted in prejudice to him.
From the time of his registration under the draft law early in 1951 to the time he was ordered to report for civilian work in August 1954, the appellant had six hearings before the local board and had his case before the appeal board on two occasions. The members of the local board testified that throughout this period they were available to the appellant for the purpose of advising him as to his duties and his rights and at no time did they refuse to give him any advice.
Although appellant had been married since September 1952, he did not inform the board of this fact until the hearing of April 15, 1953. The transcript of that hearing states: “* * * When, [appellant was] asked why he had never before informed the Board of his marital status, he stated ,that he is not seeking that type of deferment but is asking for the same exemption that is usually granted to ministers of religion.” A board member testified that at the same hearing he unsuccessfully “pleaded with” and “begged” appellant to submit proof of his marriage so that he might get a dependency deferment. That appellant continued in his determination to qualify for a ministry exemption, and none other, is evidenced by a letter dated May 8, 1953 where he mentioned that his wife was pregnant merely as a subsidiary item in his argument for a ministry exemption.
The record also reveals that on at least five occasions appellant received SSS Form No. 110 — Notice of Classification —in which form he was apprised that for advice he could see his Government appeal agent.
In view of the above evidence I believe that appellant was determined in obtaining an exemption as a minister of religion and on that ground alone. Had he been interested in a dependency deferment prior to August 23, 1953, there were available to him for advice the members of the local board and the appeal agent who had been helpful and cooperative concerning all prior inquiries made by appellant. It is difficult to conclude that the posting of a list of advisors by the board would have altered the appellant’s determination or provided any better source of information than he had. For it must be noted that only by consulting the advisors between July 13, 1953 and August 25, 1953, would appellant have learned of the deadline concerning submission of proof of parenthood.
Therefore, I conclude that the appellant did not establish that the local board’s failure to appoint advisors and to post their names in its office resulted in prejudice to him.
I would affirm the judgment of conviction of the district court.

. See footnote 2 in the opinion of the court.