Court Opinion

ID: 9460811
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:00:52.756076+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:47.599272
License: Public Domain

MORELL E. SHARP,
District Judge (concurring, dissenting in part):
I concur with the majority in concluding that the judgment of the district court cannot be affirmed for the reason that the finding of the Assistant Chief, expressed in his denial letter is ambiguous. The letter seems to indicate that the plaintiff’s views have not changed except in degree since acceptance of his commission. The majority interprets this finding as an unjustified reliance on 32 C.F.R. § 730.18(b), which denies conscientious objection discharge when an in-service applicant’s views were crystalized prior to entry into service, even though these views, if properly presented prior to entry, would have qualified him for exemption from service. In my opinion, however, the Assistant Chief’s findings can also be reasonably interpreted as suggesting that the plaintiff was insincere in his beliefs initially and is still insincere. This was the conclusion of the investigating officer as quoted in the majority opinion. In my view, the record would clearly support denial on that basis. Accordingly, I believe that the Navy should have the opportunity to clarify its decision on remand.
In the three decisions cited by the majority as supporting reversal, Tellez v. Chaffee, 467 F.2d 218 (9th Cir. 1972), Christensen v. Franklin, 456 F.2d 1277 (9th Cir. 1972), and Pinkus v. Pearson, 449 F.2d 162 (9th Cir. 1971), there was no possibility of an ambiguous second basis for the denial by the military service. Once the stated finding in each of these cases had been found to lack basis in fact, there was no alternative to reversal.
On the other hand, Zemke v. Larsen, 434 F.2d 1281 (9th Cir. 1970), is directly in point. There, the court looked behind the basis for denial stated by the Army Conscientious Objector Review Board (a procedure specifically rejected in today’s majority opinion) and exam*120ined the notes of the individual Board members to uncover a possible basis for rejection besides the impermissible one stated in the Board decision. That action was remanded to allow the military-service a reasonable time for reconsideration. The same course should be followed here where the written decision of the deciding authority could arguably be found to contain a proper basis for denial besides the early crystalization basis rejected by the court.