Court Opinion

ID: 9445516
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:31:27.924318+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:18.169693
License: Public Domain

MURRAH, Circuit Judge
(concurring specially).
I concur in the affirmance of the judgment and in most of the opinion by my Brother LEWIS. Not being quite clear, however, of his reasoning on the right of appellant to a referral of his 4-D claim to the Department of Justice, I shall briefly state my views on that point.
As I interpret the applicable statutes and regulations, a registrant is entitled to a referral of his file to the Department of Justice for appropriate inquiry and hearing only if he is denied his claimed status as a conscientious objector. Since this appellant was given that status by his local board and ultimately by the appeal board, he cannot complain of the refusal of the board to consider the report of the hearing officer in the denial of his claimed ministerial status.
Section 6(g) of the Universal Military Training and Service Act, 62 Stat. 611, Title 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 456 (g), specifically exempts duly ordained ministers of religion and bona fide theological or divinity students from training and service under the Act. Subsection (j) of the same Section provides that nothing in the Act shall be construed to require any person to be subject to combatant training “who, by reason of religious training and belief, is conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form.” And, it also provides that any person claiming exemption from combatant training and service because of conscientious objections shall, if such claim is not sustained by his local board, be entitled to an appeal to the appropriate appeal board. Upon the filing of the appeal, the appeal board must refer any such claim to the Department of Justice for inquiry, hearing and recommendations.
In conformity with the statute, the selective service has, by appropriate regulations, prescribed classification 4-D for an ordained-minister or bona fide student; 1-AO for one conscientiously opposed to combatant training and service; and 1-0 for one who is conscientiously opposed to even noncombatant training or service. 32 C.F.R. § 1622.2. The only requirement placed upon the latter is that “in lieu of induction” he shall be subject to “such civilian work contributing to the maintenance of the national health, safety or interest as the local board may deem appropriate * * Under applicable regulations, any person, whether minister or not, claiming to be conscientiously opposed to either combatant or noncombatant service or training is entitled to a referral of his file to the Department of Justice for appropriate hearing if his claim is not sustained by the board. If, however, the registrant’s claim to either such classification is sustained by the local board, the appeal board must proceed accordingly. See 32 C.F.R. § 1626.25(a), as amended June 18, 1952.
Neither the statute nor the regulations purport to accord a registrant claiming a ministerial classification the right to a hearing before an officer of the Department of Justice. The underlying reasons for according a registrant claiming a conscientious objector status an auxiliary hearing and recommendation by an officer of the Department of Justice, and denying it to a registrant claiming a ministerial classification, are readily discernible when we consider that the ministerial status is determinable by *190wholly objective tests, see Title 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 466(g); 32 C.F.R. § 1622.43; while a conscientious objector status is determinable by a wholly subjective test, see Title 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 456(j) ; 32 C.F.R. § 1622.11(b), for determining the sincerity of one claiming to be a conscientious objector to war in any form. In making the subjective determination “Observers sympathetic to the problems of the conscientious objector have recognized that this provision in the statute improves the system of review by helping the appeal boards to reach a more informed judgment on the appealing registrant’s claims.” United States v. Nugent, 346 U.S. 1, 9, 73 S.Ct. 991, 996. And so, I agree that the appellant cannot complain of the failure of the appeal board to consider the report of the hearing officer in the determination of his 4-D claim to a ministerial status.