Court Opinion

ID: 9454350
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:44:04.925655+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:05.101920
License: Public Domain

BURGER, Circuit Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part):
I cannot join in the reasoning of the court that “the Secretary lacked power to exclude Thompson’s remains from interment in a national cemetery * * * [because] * * * Congress conferred upon the decedent a right to burial * * * unconditioned by the Secretary’s exercise of judgment.”
Congress, on the contrary, specifically provided that the right was conditioned by “such regulations as the Secretary of the Army may * * * prescribe * * * ” 24 U.S.C. § 281. I suggest that the majority is simply substituting its personal views of public policy for the policy decisions of the Legislative and Executive branches of government — and unnecessarily so because of narrow grounds to the same end. Neither the language of the statute nor its legislative history warrants the majority’s conclusion.
I would reach the result achieved by the majority on the narrow ground that the Secretary made an overly and unnecessarily broad interpretation of his own regulation governing those sentenced to 5 year prison terms. The rationale behind such cut-off points is traditionally to single out those offenses which are so serious that they result in long-term sentences. To cumulate sentences as the Secretary does here brings within the scope of the regulation those individuals who, although they have been sentenced for substantial terms, have no single sentence of 5 or more years. I have very grave doubts that an exclusion can be justified by adding up the total of sentences to bring a case under the five year provision.
I would therefore remand the case to the Secretary with directions to reconsider his action in light of our view of his application of the regulation to separate sentences, each of which was for less than 5 years.