Court Opinion

ID: 9455320
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:18:36.05874+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:33.145125
License: Public Domain

CHAMBERS, Circuit Judge
(concurring) :
In my view, the case should be disposed of as Judge Ely would. However, a clear majority of the judges, including the dissenters, thinks the case should be resolved “on the Road to Damascus.” On that road, I agree with Judge Kilkenny. Therefore, I concur in Judge Kilkenny’s opinion.
MERRILL, Circuit Judge, with whom Circuit Judges HAMLEY, KOELSCH, BROWNING and HUFSTEDLER join, dissenting:
The majority opinion, affirming the District Court, holds as matter of law that crystallization of a registrant’s conscientious objection to war is not, under 32 C.F.R. § 1625.2, “a change in [his] status resulting from circumstances over which [he] had no control.”1 In this posture of the case we must assume that appellant in fact enjoys the status of a conscientious objector but is precluded from recognition of that status by virtue of the provisions of the regulation. Two distinct contentions were advanced by appellee in support of the District Court. The majority opinion appears to rely on both.
1. First it was contended that crystallization of conscientious objection is not a “circumstance” under the regulation; that by “circumstances” the regulation was intended to include only such objectively ascertainable conditions as a change in dependency status or physical condition; that it was not meant to include such intangible considerations as state of mind. For two reasons, I find this contention unacceptable: (a) I do not believe the regulation is rationally subject to such a construction; (b) so construed, I would hold the regulation to be contrary to statute and invalid.
(a) A “change in the registrant’s status” under the regulation can have reference only to a change in the registrant’s right to a particular classification. “Circumstances” in this context can have reference only to the conditions relevant to such a change of status. In the case of the conscientious objector status the only relevant condition or circumstance is the registrant’s state of mind. The effect of the majority’s construction is to single out conscientious objector as one status entitled to no consideration at this stage of the proceedings. I cannot attribute to the regulation such a discriminatory result.
Further this construction would seem to create an anomalous situation noted in United States v. Gearey, 368 F.2d 144 (2d Cir. 1966); cert. denied, 389 U.S. 959, 88 S.Ct. 335, 19 L.Ed.2d 368 (1967)2
*339The Congressional policy against requiring combatant training and service of those conscientiously opposed to participation in war is one of long standing. See United States v. Seeger, 380 U.S. 163, 85 S.Ct. 850, 13 L.Ed.2d 733 (1965). It finds its counterpart in the policy of the armed forces that conscientious objectors should be discharged from service or assigned noncombatant duty. The armed forces quite appropriately focus their attention on conscientious objection crystallizing after induction, leaving cases of earlier crystallization to the jurisdiction of the Selective Service System.
The majority’s construction thus creates a hiatus: Those who become conscientious objectors after notice of induction but before actually being inducted would appear to be excluded from application of the Congressional policy. Application of the policy is made to depend not on one’s true status but on when one acquired it.
.(b) Legislation creating this exemption from military service, 50 U.S.C. App. § 456(j) provides for no such limitation. The enforcement of orderly procedures may well require default to be imposed for failure of a registrant to claim in timely fashion. But here the limitation is not based on procedural default. It acts upon the substance of the status itself, and serves to diminish what Congress has bestowed. I regard it as beyond the rule-making power of the System so to exclude from application of the exemption anyone who by virtue of his status is entitled to it under law; or, for reasons of expediency, to relieve itself from the onus of its clear obligation to entertain timely claims of status on the part of registrants not yet inducted into military service.
2. It was next contended that this “circumstance” (crystallization of conscientious belief), accepting it as such, cannot be said to be one over which the registrant has no control. In other words, assuming appellant to be a true conscientious objector, it was within his control not to become one.
This strikes me as a disparagement of the concept of conscience most out of tune with the prevailing mores of the day. One simply cannot order his conscience to be still or make himself believe what he does not believe and I must reject the implication that it is right and proper that one should suffer loss of status for having failed to bring his conscience to heel.
Conscientious objection, in truth, is a contradiction of control. Just as a conviction honestly dictated by conscience cannot be banished at the will of the holder, so, conversely, a belief conveniently subject to the control of the holder is not conscientiously entertained.
The issue for the board after notice of induction is, then, no different from that presented by an earlier claim: Is the avowed belief conscientiously entertained?3 Only the procedure of its resolution differs. But this factual issue should be faced and not be disposed of as a matter of law on such an assumption as is here advanced.
I would reverse.

. The points raised in Judge Ely’s concurring opinion were not reached by the District Court. From the record it would appear doubtful that they were reached even by the local board. Before the District Court the appellant asserted that the local board’s decision not to reopen was based solely on the ground that his change in status was not beyond his control. The District Court dealt with the case in a manner consistent with this position.

. Footnote 11, 368 F.2d at page 150, states:
“Any other conclusion would result in the anomalous situation that individuals whose claim of conscientious objection mature either prior to receipt of a notice of induction or after induction itself, would be permitted to apply for deferment, while those whose beliefs formed during the interim period, would not be able to properly raise their claims. It would appear this is so because Department of Defense Directive No. 1300.6 states:
Federal courts have held that a claim to exemption from military service under the UMT&S Act must be interposed prior to notice of induction and failure to make timely claim for exemption constitutes waiver of the right to *339claim. Therefore, request for discharge after entering military service, based solely on conscientious objection which existed but was not claimed prior to induction or enlistment, cannot be entertained. Similarly, requests for discharge based solely on conscientious objection claimed and denied by Selective Service prior to induction cannot be entertained.”

. The further issue is presented: Did the belief in fact crystallize after receiving notice of induction and thus constitute a change in status? Dugdale v. United States, 389 F.2d 482 (9th Cir. 1968).