Court Opinion

ID: 9447167
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:27:29.264338+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:55.432392
License: Public Domain

MOORE, Circuit Judge
(concurring in the result).
I concur in the result but for somewhat different reasons. Appellee fully understood the consequences of his election in claiming draft exemption.1 He traded ineligibility to become a citizen against relief from service — not a mere temporary stay or deferment subject to cancellation. However, the government’s part of the bargain was that he be relieved from service. When the government by its own act destroyed Hoellger’s exempt status by changing its arrangements with Germany, thereby making its nationals subject to service in our armed forces and thereafter compelled him to serve, it took away the consideration for the original bargain. Because the government deprived Hoellger of that which it represented to him would be granted, it is in no position to insist on enforcement of citizenship ineligibility, the price he was paying for that which he did not receive.

. Upon the hearing before the Examiner, appellee testified that he had originally been classified I-A and subsequently classified as a German treaty national. His answers to certain questions affirmatively establish that he knowingly and voluntarily chose exemption.
“Q. Did you read this document when you signed it? A. Yes, and somebody explained it to me.”
“Q. Who explained it to you? A. This witness, Mr-. Harry Hinriehsen” [his brother-in-law and employer],
“Q. When you signed this document, did you intend to reside in the United States at that time? A. No.”
“Q. Had you intended to return to Germany? A. Yes, I had my folks still there.”
“Q. You understood this document perfectly? A. Yes.”
“Q. You knew that if you signed this, you couldn’t become a citizen? A. Yes.”