Court Opinion

ID: 9457441
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:22:10.268786+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:21.161827
License: Public Domain

GIBBONS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The regulations of the Selective Service System dealing with determination of physical acceptability for induction provide for three separate stages of medical inquiry. These are a Local Board medical interview (32 C.F.R. § 1628.1 (1971)), a pre-induction physical examination (32 C.F.R. § 1628.10) and an induction examination (32 C.F.R. § 1632.-16). The results of these three separate stages of medical inquiry are recorded in Section II — Local Board Medical Interview, Section VII — Determination at Pre-induction Examination, and Section VIII —Determination at Induction Examination of DD Form No. 47, Record of Induction. This form is the basic record of the Selective Service System for each registrant.
*801The appellant, a registrant with Local Board No. 323, Royal Oak, Michigan, apparently received a Local Board medical interview in which the Local Board found no disqualifying physical defects. As required by 32 C.F.R. § 1628.3(b) the Local Board listed this finding in Section II of DD Form No. 47. This medical interview is of a cursory nature since neither laboratory nor X-ray work is authorized. 32 C.F.R. § 1628.3(a).
“After completion of the medical interview the local board shall determine, after considering the findings and recommendations of the medical advisor to the local board, whether or not to order the registrant to report for armed forces physical examination.” 32 C.F.R. § 1628.4(c).
In case of doubt the local board must resolve the doubt in favor of ordering the registrant to report for a pre-induction physical examination. 32 C.F.R. § 1628.4 (e). The pre-induction physical examination is a prerequisite to the issuance of an induction order, for 32 C.F.R. § 1628.10 provides:
“Every registrant, before he is ordered to report for induction * * * shall be given an armed forces physical examination under the provisions of this part. * * *”
The commanding officer of the examining station is required to forward to the Selective Service System documents reflecting the determination of acceptability of each registrant who receives a pre-induction physical examination. 32 C.F. R. § 1628.25. Upon return of the registrant’s records from the commanding officer of the examining station the local board is required to file the DD Form No. 47, on which by this time Section VII, Determination at Pre-induction Examination, has been filled in. If Section VII is filled in “Found not acceptable for induction into the Armed Forces” the registrant must be classified IV-F. 32 C.F.R. § 1622.44.
The Michigan Local Board determined in 1967 that the appellant should report for a pre-induction physical examination. He did so on July 5, 1967, to the Detroit Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station. At that time he was found to be qualified for induction, and his DD Form No. 47 was filled in accordingly. At that time, however, no change in his student deferred classification (II-S) took place.
In March of 1969 appellant was no longer a student. The Michigan Local Board reclassified him I-A. He thereupon furnished to the Board information, including a letter from a physician, about back trouble which had developed since the 1967 pre-induction physical examination. The Local Board, as was required both by the reopening regulations, 32 C.F.R. Part 1625, and by 32 C.F.R. § 1628.2 conducted a new medical interview, the results of which are recorded in appellant’s DD Form No. 47. That form, in Section II — Local Board Medical Interview, under the section requiring a listing of defects known to the local board lists “spondylolisthesis (see old px papers).” On the basis of the Local Board medical interview, the Local Board, as was required by 32 C.F.R. § 1628.4(e), ordered a new pre-induction physical examination. This examination took place on August 18,1969, at the Detroit Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station. The result is recorded in appellant’s DD Form No. 47, Section VII, as “Found acceptable for induction into the Armed Forces.”
The result of this August 18, 1969 examination was not, however, final. Every registrant who is ordered to report for induction is afforded a third medical inquiry, the results of which are recorded on DD Form No. 47, Section VIII— Determination at Induction Examination.
Appellant was ordered to report for induction. Since by this time he was no longer a Michigan resident his induction was transferred to Local Board No. 15 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 32 C.F.R. § 1632.9. The Transfer Board then issued an Order on December 2, 1969, ordering Haggerty to report for induction on December 9, 1969. When he reported to the Pittsburgh Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station he entered the *802third and final stage of medical inquiry as to his fitness for service. The examining physician determined that appellant suffered from a disqualifying defect. The disqualifying defect was spondylolysis of the fifth lumbar vertebra with first degree spondylolisthesis of L-5 and S-l.
To put the significance of this medical finding in context several administrative regulations must be considered. The first is 32 C.F.R. § 1628.1:
“The Surgeon General of the Department of the Army shall, from time to time, prescribe or approve a list enumerating various medical conditions or physical defects that disqualify registrants for service in the Armed Forces. * * * ”
This regulation of the Selective Service System is issued under the authority of 50 U.S.C. App. § 454(a) (1967) which provides:
“No person shall be inducted into the Armed Forces for training and service * * until his acceptability in all respects, including his physical and mental fitness, has been satisfactorily determined under standards prescribed by the Secretary of Defense. * * * ”
The Surgeon General has promulgated regulations for medical acceptability applicable generally to candidates for and inductees into the Armed Forces. Army Regulation (AR) 40-501. The standards in AR 40-501 apply to:
“2-2(f) Registrants who undergo pre-induction or induction medical examination pursuant to the Military Selective Service Act of 1967. * * * ”
Section XVIII of AR 40-501, Spine, Scapulae, Ribs and Sacroiliac Joints, provides:
“2-36. The causes for rejection of appointment, enlistment and induction are—
* * # * * h. Spondylolysis or spondylolisthesis that is symptomatic or is likely to interfere with performance of duty or is likely to require assignment limitations.”
This is precisely the condition which was found by the physician who examined appellant at the Pittsburgh Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station on December 19, 1969.
Upon finding a disqualifying condition the duty of the examining station, under the governing Selective Service System Regulations, was clear. 32 C.F.R. § 1632.20.
“(a) The commanding officer of the induction station will return to the local board the following documents concerning registrants forwarded for induction:
(3) For each registrant found not qualified for service in the Armed Forces, the original and one copy of the Record of Induction (DD Form 47), the original Report of Medical Examination (Standard Form 88), one copy of the Report of Medical History (Standard Form 89), and any copy of the Application for Voluntary Induction (SSS Form 254) submitted.” 1
The duty of the Local Board, had it received the documents required to be sent by 32 C.F.R. § 1632.20(a) (3) was equally clear. The regulations, 32 C.F.R. § 1632.20, require that
“(b) the local board, upon receipt of the documents described in paragraph (a) of this section shall take the following action:
* * * * * *
(3) For each registrant found not qualified for service in the Armed Forces file the original Record of Medical Examination (Standard Form 88), the copy of the Report of Medical History (Standard Form 89) and any copy of the Application for Voluntary Induction (SSS Form 254) in the cover sheet (SSS Form 101) and forward to the State Director of Selective Service the copy of the Record of Induction (DD Form 47).”
Besides forwarding to the State Director of Selective Service a copy of the registrant’s Record of Induction (DD Form *80347), which in Section VIII would disclose his ineligibility, the Local Board had one remaining duty:
“Upon receiving notice from the induction center that a selected man who had been forwarded for induction has been inducted or finally found not qualified for service in the Armed Forces, the local board shall reopen his classification and classify him anew.” 32 C.F.R. § 1632.30
In this case, the appellant having been found disqualified at his induction physical, the reclassification could only have been IV-F. The language of 50 U.S.C. App. § 454(a), that “[n]o person shall be inducted * * * until his acceptability in all respects, including his physical and mental fitness, was satisfactorily determined. * * * is mandatory”
The appellant’s case took the normal course until the point where in his induction physical examination he was found to be disqualified. At that point, instead of returning the DD Form 47 and the rest of the file to the Local Board, as 32 C.F.R. § 1632.20 mandated, the assistant adjutant acting for the commander of the Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station forwarded the entire file to the Chief of Personnel Operations, Department of the Army, in Washington. The letter of transmittal said in part:
“This case is forwarded as required by Letter, AGAM-P(M) (4 Apr. 66) EPPAW, Office of the Adjutant General, Department of the Army, dated 28 April 1966, subject as above.”
The reference is to a letter over the signature of the Adjutant General and by order of the Secretary of the Army. It is addressed to various army commanders and provides in part:
“Subject: Preinduction Processing of Selective Service Registrants of National Prominence
1. The following procedures apply to the preinduction processing of registrants of national prominence who are disqualified medically and/or mentally for military service. Registrants concerned are defined as: Registrants achieving national prominence by virtue of their personal ability in athletics, entertainment, business, government, other professions or activities, or who are members of families that are nationally prominent in these areas. Determination of cases to be forwarded to Headquarters, Department of the Army, in accordance with instructions in this letter will be made by the Commanding Officer, Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station. The Commanding Officer will carefully screen all cases forwarded to Department of the Army to assure that the individual is actually of national prominence.
2. These registrants will be completely processed in the normally prescribed manner except that, prior to dispatch to Selective Service local boards, their records will be forwarded from the continental United States Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Stations through Headquarters, United States Continental Army Command, ATTN: DCSPER-PD, Fort Monroe, Virginia, 23351, to the Chief of Personnel Operations, ATTN :EPPAW, Department of the Army, Washington, D. C., 20310, for review and final determination of medical and/or mental acceptability.”
There is no provision in the Military Selective Service Act of 1967, 50 U.S.C. App. § 451 et seq., for a classification “Registrants of National Prominence.” There is no provision in 32 C.F.R. Part 1623 for any such classification. The language in the third paragraph of 50 U.S.C. App. § 454(a) “No person shall be inducted * * * until his acceptability in all respects, including his physical and mental fitness, has been satisfactorily determined under standards prescribed by the Secretary of Defense. * * * ” cannot be construed as permitting waiver of a determination under such standards in the case of registrants of national prominence. The April 28, 1966, letter does not purport to be a regulation issued by the Secretary of Defense pursuant to 50 U.S.C. App. § 454 *804(a). It was never published in the Federal Register, in the Code of Federal Regulations, or in the Army Regulations respecting medical fitness.
The April 28, 1966, letter purports to apply only to preinduction processing and not to induction physical examinations which are a distinctly recognized third and final step in the Selective Service System processing. Thus it would appear on the face of the letter that the procedure specified was not even applicable to appellant’s file. The examining station has given the letter an interpretation however making it applicable to induction as well as pre-induction physical examinations. If the letter applies to induction as well as pre-induction physical examinations, paragraph 2 dealing with transmittal of records to Washington contravenes the plain language of 32 C.F.R. § 1632.20. Even if the letter is only applicable to pre-induction physical examinations paragraph 2 contravenes the plain language of 32 C.F.R. § 1628.25.
The determination that appellant was a registrant who had “achiev[ed] national prominence by virtue of [his] personal ability in athletics, entertainment, business, government, other professions or activities, or [was] a member of [a] famil[y]” of such a person, was made ex parte by either the commandant or the adjutant of the Pittsburgh examining station. Neither the Pennsylvania Local Board, nor the Michigan Local Board nor the registrant were consulted. As the adjutant’s letter of transmittal discloses, the determination was made because the appellant “is currently playing professional football for the Pittsburgh Steelers.”
The Chief of Personnel Operations apparently forwarded the file to the Surgeon General of the Army. The authority for this step does not appear in the record. The Surgeon General made a determination that the appellant was medically qualified for appointment, enlistment or induction under UP 2-43, AR 40-501. That part of the regulation, applicable to all Army personnel, appointed, enlisted, or inducted, provides:
“2.43 Vocational Waivers
When an individual who fails to meet the medical standards listed in this chapter has demonstrated in the pursuit of his civilian occupation, profession, or avocation that he is likely to be able satisfactorily to perform the duties of a member of the Armed Forces, the medical examiner may recommend to the Surgeon General of the appropriate service that such an individual be accepted on waivers of medical fitness standards. Such cases shall be considered by the Surgeon General before a final decision is made.”
This paragraph, however, must be read in conjunction with the provisions of the regulation dealing generally with waivers. AR 40-501, ffl-4. That paragraph reads as follows:
“a. Medical fitness standards cannot be waived by medical examiners or by the examinee
b. Examinees initially reported as medically unacceptable by reason of medical unfitness when the medical fitness standards in chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 apply, may request a ivaiver of the medical fitness standard * * * Upon such request, the designated administrative authority or his designee for the purposes may grant such a waiver in accordance with current directives.” (Emphasis added)
It is clear that the quoted provision on vocational waivers when read in the light of the general waiver provisions is intended to operate only in favor of those seeking admission to the armed forces and not against those who by virtue of failure to meet the medical standards of the regulations are entitled to be disqualified from service. If construed otherwise the regulation would run afoul of the mandatory language of 50 U.S.C. App. § 454(a) that “[n]o person shall be inducted into the Armed Forces * * until his acceptability * * * has been satisfactorily determined under standards prescribed by the Secretary of Defense.” The language does not permit a *805construction that would allow involuntary “waiver” of otherwise applicable standards.
The waiver provisions should not have been applied to appellant. He was neither applying for voluntary induction nor seeking enlistment. He could have but did not request a waiver of the fitness standards. But there is no question whatsoever that the Surgeon General’s determination was made under the waiver provision, for the .January 19, 1970, letter from the Office of Personnel Operations, Waiver Branch, returning the file through the Commanding General, Army Recruiting Command, Hampton, Virginia, to the Pittsburgh examining station reads:
“It has been determined by the Department of the Army that Mr. Michael K. Haggerty is medically qualified for appointment, enlistment or induction UP 2-43, AR 40-501 BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF THE ARMY Heino Heinsoo LTC, FA
Chief, Waiver Branch, EPAO, EPD” The determination of acceptability under the waiver provision is the only determination that appears in the records which were returned to the Pittsburgh examining station and untimately on April 30, 1970 to the Transfer Board in Pittsburgh. So far as the records returned to the Selective Service System reveal, there was no change in the determination of the Pittsburgh examining station that the appellant had the disqualifying condition specified in AR 40-501, Section XVIII, 2-36(h).
The Transfer Board in Pittsburgh on May 1, 1970 advised the Michigan Local Board:
“The subject registrant transferred to this Board for induction. He reported for induction on December 9, 1969 and records were held by AFIS pending medical determination.
This date we received the records and notice the registrant has been found qualified for induction. Please advise if we are to proceed with the induction. * * * ”
This letter was only partly accurate, for it did not disclose that appellant had been found to have a disqualifying condition but had been found eligible only under the waiver section. On May 5, 1970, the Clerk of the Michigan Local Board replied to the Pittsburgh Transfer Board:
“Re your letter dated May 1, 1970, please proceed with the induction — this has been outstanding too long.”
The Pittsburgh Transfer Board ultimately acted upon this instruction and ordered the appellant to submit to induction. This lawsuit followed.
It seems clear from the Selective Service System file that the Michigan Local Board never knew of the existence of the disqualifying condition or of the fact that appellant had been found acceptable under the waiver provision. It is clear that the Pittsburgh Transfer Board had records showing that appellant had been found to have a disqualifying condition which the Surgeon General agreed to waive. The district court, the majority, and the appellee all urge that these facts should be disregarded because at the hearing in the district court witnesses connected with the Office of the Surgeon General testified over objection that he had in fact been found to be qualified under AR 40-501, |f2-36. Thus, they contend, we need not concern ourselves with the propriety of applying the waiver provision to an involuntary inductee. The short answer to this contention is that if any such finding was made by the Surgeon General it was never disclosed to the Selective Service System or even to the Pittsburgh Examining Station. The appellant has been ordered to submit to induction on the basis of a finding that the Surgeon General would waive an otherwise disqualifying defect. There is no way of knowing how the Michigan Local Board would have classified the appellant had it known of the disqualifying defect. There is no way of avoiding the fact that the Pittsburgh Transfer Board ordered appellant to submit to induction because the Surgeon *806General waived a disqualifying defect. Neither the Pittsburgh Transfer Board nor the Michigan Local Board had any information about the supposed findings of the Surgeon General’s orthopedic consultants that appellant was not suffering from a subpart 2-36 (h) disqualification, and it is disingenuous to rely upon those findings, disclosed for the first time in the district court, as a justification for the induction order.
But assuming the induction order under attack resulted not from a medical waiver under Subpart UP 2-43 of AR 40-501 but from a finding in the Surgeon General’s office that the conclusion of the physician at the Pittsburgh examining station was wrong, appellant still is left with two substantial grounds for due process attack upon the order.
The first ground is the patent invalidity of the authority under which his file was singled out for ex parte appellate medical review. The “prominent persons” letter is not issued on the authority of the President, who by virtue of the Selective Service Act is authorized to prescribe regulations 50 U.S.C. App. § 455.2 Even if it had been so issued the category of otherwise disqualified “Registrants achieving national prominence by virtue of their personal ability in athletics, entertainment, business, government, other professions or activities, or who are members of families that are nationally prominent in these areas” is on its face so boldly discriminatory, so lacking in discernable standards of selection, so capable of arbitrary application, that it cannot pass due process muster. Under this letter, the commanding officer of an examining station is authorized to make an ex parte selection of files for ex parte medical review with no guidance except his own predelictions. If he reads the sports pages of his newspapers he may select athletes. If he reads the entertainment pages he may select singers. If he reads the news pages he may select politicians. Or he may select the sons of athletes, of singers or of politicians.
The second ground is that even if, the “prominent persons” letter could pass due process muster the method of ex parte medical review which the letter prescribes subjected appellant to actual and prejudicial discrimination. The discrimination was actual because the file of any other registrant who at the induction physical is found to be disqualified is merely returned to his local board to be reclassified accordingly. It was prejudicial because in the case of a registrant whose medical ineligibility is finally determined at the examining station the physician who makes the determination has the benefit of the registrant’s presence and the opportunity to evaluate face to face his subjective and objective symp-tomatology. In appellant’s case the physicians in Washington neither had nor sought any such opportunity. Moreover they did not even have the benefit of a medical history of that symptomatology as of December 9, 1969 because the examining physician at the Pittsburgh examining station recorded only his conclusion, not the appellant’s description or his own observation of appellant’s symptoms. The disqualification in question is “spondylolysis or spondylolisthesis that is symptomatic or is likely to interfere with performance of duty or is likely to require assignment limitations.” AR 40-501, § 2-36(h) (emphasis added) With no knowledge of the symptoms suffered by appellant it is difficult to understand how the Washington physicians made the diagnosis which in the district court they claim to have made.
In fact, of course, what they did and what they recorded in the Selective Service System records was to assume the existence of the defect and to waive it. Waiver of the defect was what was re*807ported back to the Pittsburgh examining station and to the Selective Service System, and waiver of the defect on the ground of appellant’s so-called national prominence is the issue with which we are confronted.
The majority would hold that § 10(b) (3) of the Selective Service Act, 50 U.S. C. App. § 460(b) (3) precludes judicial consideration of that issue. For several reasons I do not agree. In the first place that statute is not by its terms applicable to the procedures challenged in this lawsuit.
“No judicial review shall be made of the classification or processing of any registrant by local boards, appeal boards, or the President. * * * ” 50 U.S.C. App. § 460(b) (3).
The appellant’s complaint challenges a letter issued by the adjutant general and an ex parte medical appellate review by a branch of the Defense Department. § 10(b) (3) does not bar this challenge.
Moreover, even if the “prominent persons letter” and the ex parte medical review are considered to be part of the Selective Service System processing they represent a clear departure from the Selective Service System’s own regulations, a violation of the mandatory language of 50 U.S.C. App. § 454(a), and a blatant lawlessness falling squarely within Oes-tereich v. Selective Service System (393 U.S. 233, 89 S.Ct. 414, 21 L.Ed.2d 402 (1968)) and Breen v. Selective Service Local Board No. 16 (396 U.S. 460, 90 S.Ct. 661, 24 L.Ed.2d 653 (1969)). Indeed the district court held that the complaint alleged violations falling outside the scope of § 10(b) (3) and proceeded to hear the case on the merits.
The district court opinion suggests that the April 23, 1966, letter will pass due process muster because the registrant can present information relevant to his status as a person of national prominence at the examining station. This is plainly not so, for the letter is unpublished and there is no way for a registrant to know that he is going to be or has been singled out for “waiver” treatment. Even if it were so, however, there would remain the issue whether the Selective Service System may apply different and lower standards of medical acceptability to the vague class of persons defined in the letter.
The fact that in civilian life appellant plays at “one of the most demanding posts in football” does not impress me. Last year, Tom Dempsey, a place kicker with only part of a foot, scored seventy points for the New Orleans Saints. There are, fortunately, numerous examples of individuals who despite the existence of physical handicaps have achieved prominence in their chosen fields of endeavor. That such persons shall be singled out for “waiver” treatment when it comes time for their induction physical examination smacks to me of a press agentry approach to manpower procurement which is unworthy of the Armed Forces of the United States.
I would reverse the order of the district court and remand with directions that an injunction should issue prohibiting the Local Board from ordering the appellant to report for induction on the authority of the decision of the Surgeon General that his disqualifying medical condition may be waived.

. Appellant did not file a Form 254.

. The appellee’s brief states “It is conceded that there is no statute or regulation which specifically authorizes the Commanding Officer of an AFEES to forward the medical records of a registrant to the office of the Surgeon General for review.” Brief for Appellee at p. 10. Ap-pellee and the district court point for authority to 10 U.S.C. § 3010 (1964). This statute is simply irrelevant.