Court Opinion

ID: 9456256
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:47:01.165285+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:54.482939
License: Public Domain

McCREE, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. I believe that the judgment below should be reversed under the authority of the decision of a unanimous panel of this court in United States v. Tichenor, 403 F.2d 986 (6th Cir. 1968).
In Tichenor, we held that where the decision of the local board “was based on an erroneous view of law”, 403 F.2d at 988, and where it was impossible to determine the basis of the decision of the appeal board because of the denial by the District Court of access to the names of the appeal board members and the record of its proceedings, a conviction for refusal to submit to induction must be reversed and the case remanded to the District Court “for a new trial with instructions that it permit appellant to attempt to prove that the appeal board did not correct the error of the local draft board”. 403 F.2d at 990. This holding followed the Supreme Court’s decision that a classification based on an error of law cannot form the basis for a conviction for refusal to submit to induction. Sicurella v. United States, 348 U.S. 385, 75 S.Ct. 403, 99 L.Ed. 436 (1955). I believe that this appeal presents at least as strong a case for reversal as Tichenor.
I think it will be helpful to quote the testimony of three of the four local board members who heard Mr. Griffin’s case to show just how deficient was their understanding of the applicable law.
A [Mr. Baulch] Well, we didn’t see how he could be a minister and he was working full time in the office right next to the draft board office.
Q You say he was working full time in ’66 and '67? How many hours was he putting in ?
A I don’t know.
Q Well, how did you know he was working full time ?
A Well, he was there every time we had a draft board meeting.
Q And that is how you determined he was working full time?
A [no answer].
*745MR. STEPNER [counsel for appellant] : Let the record show that he nodded “yes” please.
Q Was it your sole basis for determining that he was not a minister, the fact that he was working?
A That was the biggest part of it.
Q What else was there ?
A Well, I think that was it.
Transcript at 111, 112. The uncontradicted testimony at trial showed that appellant held a secular job at which he worked 20 hours each week, and that he spent approximately 40 hours per week working as a “Pioneer” according to the tenets of the Jehovah’s Witness faith. It has been held that a man working as many as 40 hours per week as a crane operator may still be entitled tó a ministerial classification. Wiggins v. United States, 261 F.2d 113 (5th Cir. 1958), cert. denied, 359 U.S. 942, 79 S.Ct. 723, 3 L.Ed.2d 676, reh. denied, 359 U.S. 976, 79 S.Ct. 874, 3 L.Ed.2d 843 (1959); see also Matyastik v. United States, 392 F. 2d 657, 660, cases cited in n. 8 (5th Cir. 1968).
Another member of the local board, Mr. Lamker, testified as follows:
Q What are the rules as you believe them to be for classifying ministers?
A Well, to me it is similar to an attorney or a certified public accountant or a doctor, .that nobody can walk down the street and claim to be an attorney or a C.P. A. or a doctor just because they say they are. There are certain educational qualifications that have to be met and usually there is state laws that have to be adhered to and examinations taken and background to be able to classify yourself as a professional man and I think a minister is a professional man.
Q And if a person works, on top of saying he is a minister, would you deny him this classification?
A No, sir, no.
Q Well, what educational standards do you believe that — will you state that you have to have ?
A I believe they should go to a theology school and be an accredited school and also be — either have gone through a formal or public ordination ceremony of some sort so that the public knows that they are in fact a minister.
Q A public ordination ?
A I think so, yes.
Q Where would you conduct that?
A Well, it depends on the denomination. If you were a Catholic, I imagine you would go to a Catholic Church and if you were a Baptist, I imagine you would go to a Baptist Church.
Q If you were a Jehovah’s Witness, you would go to a Jehovah’s Witness Church?
A That’s right.
Q Did you find out whether he had been ordained before the Jehovah’s Witness Church ?
A I don’t know whether they — I am not real sure whether they have a formal ceremony.
Q Then I assume from your answer you did not find out, is that correct?
A Yes.
Q So, you don’t know whether he is ordained ?
A No, I don’t.
Q What state license do you expect these people or do you want ministers to have ?
MR. COOK [Assistant United States Attorney]: Object. It doesn’t matter what he wants.
Q Or — well, he said that they should have a state license.
A Well, I imagine it is according to the laws of the state. In accounting we have to take a three-day examination and we have to re*746new our license every year, filed with the state and so forth.
Q What is the state law for a minis* ter’s license?
A Sir, I don’t know.
MR. STEPNER: All right.
Q What examination do you feel that they have to take ?
A Whatever is required of their college or theology school. Just like medicine. I wouldn’t know which college a doctor would have to go to. I don’t know what license he has to have because I don’t know the law regarding every profession.
Q Then you are basing these examinations on a theological school exam?
A That’s right, some formal education.
Transcript, at 146-49. This is an incorrect statement of the law. 32 C.F.R. § 1622.43(a) provides in part: “In Class IV-D shall be placed any registrant: (1) Who is a regular minister of religion; (2) Who is a duly ordained minister of religion * * * ” 50 U.S.C. App. § 466(g) (2) reads as follows (emphasis added):
The term “regular minister of religion” means one who as his customary vocation preaches and teaches the principles of religion of a church, religious sect, or organization of which he is a member, without having been formally ordained as a minister of religion, and who is recognized by such church, sect, or organization as a regular minister.
Mr. Wolnitzek, a member of the local board, testified:
Q Aside from his appearance before you and your skepticism about his ministerial connection, what other things did you consider in denying him his 4D classification?
A Well, I believe, sir, that his indication was on his record that he was working full time in another occupation in there and from that I was unable to find where he was doing a job as a minister.
Q Correct me if I am wrong. It was your skepticism about his validity as a minister and his work?
A Well, I couldn’t find anything in the records, sir, that indicated to me that he had spent some time in studying for the ministry.
Q Do you know what the Selective Service regulations are for a minister exemption?
A Well, no.
Transcript, at 154,154, 155. Mr. Wolnitzek made the same errors as the others in assuming that appellant’s secular work was inconsistent with his being a minister under the Selective Service regulations and that there exists some educational requirement for a IV-D classification. His “skepticism” by itself is not enough to justify his decision, since once a registrant has made a prima facie claim for an exemption, the local board is not free to simply disbelieve him, but may do so only when there is affirmative evidence in its files to refute the claim. Dickinson v. United States, 346 U.S. 389, 396, 397, 74 S.Ct. 152, 98 L.Ed. 132 (1953); United States v. Washington, 392 F.2d 37 (6th Cir. 1968); cf. Mulloy v. United States, 398 U.S. 410, 416-417, 90 S.Ct. 1766, 26 L. Ed.2d 362 (1970).
There remains some dispute aboul who was the fourth member of the local board who participated in classifying appellant I-A. The board’s clerk testified that the local board’s records disclosed that a Mr. Kenneth Weigel, who died prior to the trial, had participated in the decision. However, at trial, one Arthur Tipton, currently a member of Local Board 50, testified that he was one of the board members who had classified appellant I-A, and he elaborated at some length on his reasons for doing so. I do not think we can consider this evidentiary conflict as resolved by the jury’s verdict, but, in any event, it is clear that three of the four local board *747members acted on erroneous views of law in denying appellant a ministerial exemption and classifying him I-A.
The Government contends, and a majority of the court agrees, that there is. nevertheless, a basis in fact for the denial of the IV-D exemption. My perusal of the record discloses no basis in fact for this determination, except perhaps for an inarticulate “skepticism” about appellant’s claims, which, as observed above, Dickinson, supra; Washington, supra, is not enough by itself to negative a prima facie case for exemption. Moreover, in the context of a claim for a ministerial deferment, mere skepticism does not have the force it has in conscientious objection eases, since qualification for the IV-D classification is far more capable of objective determination Witmer v. United States, 348 U.S. 375, 381, 75 S.Ct. 392, 99 L.Ed. 428 (1955).
But even assuming the existence of a basis in fact, it is not dispositive of the question before us. The Supreme Court has declared that a classification cannot be upheld when it has “no basis in fact”, Estep v. United States, 327 U.S. 114, 122, 66 S.Ct. 423, 90 L.Ed. 567 (1946), or when it is based on an erroneous theory of law. Sicurella v. United States, 348 U.S. 385, 75 S.Ct. 403, 99 L. Ed. 436 (1955). “The decisions of the local boards made in conformity with the regulations are final even though they may be erroneous”. Estep v. United States, 327 U.S. at 122, 66 S.Ct. at 427 (emphasis added). Here it is clear that the local board’s decision was made under theories of law directly contrary to the regulations and the statutes governing the Selective Service System. When a board makes a decision based on a totally erroneous legal theory, it is acting beyond its legal authority, and its action is “lawless and beyond its jurisdiction”, Estep v. United States, 327 U.S. at 121, 66 S.Ct. 423, even though it could conceivably make the same decision in accordance with the law. For example, if a board, in defiance of the regulations, classified a registrant I-A because of his racial or religious identification, its action would be void, although it might classify the same man I-A on a permissible rationale. See Estep v. United States, 327 U.S. at 120-121, 66 S.Ct. 423. I see no reason why the result should be different here, when it is clear that the board has acted in total disregard of applicable statutes and regulations.
In Tichenor we said:
In the present case there is nothing in the record which permits us to determine whether the appeal board perpetuated the local board’s error of law when it affirmed the latter’s denial of the requested IV-D classification. The District Court received no evidence concerning this question and, apparently without explanation, foreclosed appellant’s attempt to present any. * * * Since we are concerned here with a criminal conviction, we cannot under these circumstances hold that the error of the local board was corrected and that the appeal board based its action on independent and proper grounds.
403 F.2d at 990. See also United States v. Atherton, 430 F.2d 741 (9th Cir. 1969). The ease before us cannot be distinguished on the facts. The District Court, without explanation, denied appellant’s motion to obtain the names of the appeal board members and to subpoena them to testify at trial — although the motion was made after the announcement of our decision in Tichenor, which appellant cited as authority for his request. Without this evidence, there can be no proper record on which this court can exercise its duty of judicial review.
The assumption that the appeal board corrected the local board’s error of law is further undermined by the fact that Mr. Griffin never received the official form for requesting a ministerial deferment despite his clear claim, made on four occasions, for such a classification. At least one member of the local board admitted at trial that such a form, filled *748out by appellant, would have been helpful, Transcript at 153; and of course the appeal board never had an opportunity to consider whatever information appellant might have furnished on the form. It is true that appellant was permitted to make oral representations concerning his request for a IV-D classification, but it cannot be gainsaid that a carefully filled-out .form would have minimized the risk of his having failed to supply relevant information.
I need not decide, in light of my view of the proper disposition of the case, whether the local board and its clerk’s failure to supply the proper form constitutes a denial of a hearing on the issue of classification, as was held in United States v. Sobczak, 264 F.Supp. 752 (N.D.Ga.1968), to require dismissal of the indictment. But at the very least, the Board’s failure to provide appellant with the proper form renders even more persuasive the argument that we cannot assume that the appeal board’s decision cured the errors in the local board’s proceedings.
Accordingly, since all the elements that required reversal in Tichenor are present here, I would reverse the conviction and remand the case for proceedings in accordance with that decision.
I fully concur with Judge Phillips' observations concerning the five-year sentence. It appears from the record before us that appellant is a highly religious young man of exemplary moral character. He has spurned opportunities for higher education and for vocational training in order to pursue his mission as a Pioneer in the Jehovah’s Witnesses' Church. His apparent eschewing of financial gain is especially convincing evidence of devotion to his ministry in view of the fact that he has a wife and two children to support. The imposition of the maximum possible sentence on such a man runs counter to enlightened concepts of correction and can only undermine respect for our judicial system and its professed human values.