United States v. Vincent Francis McGee Jr.

Vincent Francis McGee, Jr. appeals from a judgment of conviction for violating 50 U.S.C.App. § 462(a), following a trial before Judge Murphy and a jury in the District Court for the Southern District of New York. McGee was convicted on all four counts of the indictment and was sentenced to imprisonment for two years on each count, the terms to run concurrently. The indictment charged him with refusing to submit to induction (Count 1), to report for a physical examination (Count 2), to possess a valid notice of classification (Count 3), and to submit information that his local board had requested (Count 4),.

I.

McGee is a Roman Catholic who is currently a student at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He registered with Local Board 15 in Manhattan in August 1961, and informed the board a month later that he was “a student preparing for the ministry at the Cathedral College of St. Joseph’s Seminary * * * under the direction of Roman Catholic Church.” He took a leave of absence from the College in 1963, during which period his board classified him I-A. In August 1964, he passed the preinduction physical that his board had ordered. A short time later, after enrolling in the University of Rochester, he was granted a II-S (student) deferment. He was temporarily reclassified I-A in September 1965, but his II-S classification was renewed shortly thereafter. In February 1966, while still classified II-S, McGee requested conscientious objector status, stating that it was his “intention to continue on to actual ordained Priesthood.” The clerk of his board wrote him on March 23:

This will advise that the recent evidence submitted, concerning your case has been reviewed by the Local Board. It is the decision of the Board that such evidence does not justify the reopening of your case and reconsideration of your present classification.

However, we wish to advise that your claim as Conscientious Objector will be considered when you no longer qualify for a student classification.

McGee did-not appeal this decision; he later requested and was granted a further II-S classification in October 1966.

In April 1967, while still classified II-S and enrolled in the University of Rochester, McGee wrote President Johnson, enclosing remnants of his torn and burnt draft card. This letter stated that even though he had “already been accepted for graduate study in a program where” he “would probably qualify for the theological deferment,” he felt it necessary to “sever every link with violence and war” and to refuse to cooperate “with the military-industrial complex which seems to be dictating our international policy.” McGee’s local board received a copy of this letter, apparently considered reopening his classification and decided against it, and, in any event, did not change his II-S classification and deferment. Following McGee’s graduation from the University of Rochester in June 1967, his board sent him a Current Information Questionnaire. McGee returned it unanswered, and in a covering letter announced that “further correspondence” from the draft board would “simply be returned unopened,” consistent with his belief that “cooperation is approval.” On September 19, 1967, almost two months after receipt of this letter by the local board, McGee was reclassified I-A. The Board mailed him a notice of classification and a letter clearly informing him that he had a right to ask for a personal appearance or an appeal within 30 days, that the board had a Government Appeal Agent to aid him “with a personal appearance, an appeal, or any other procedural right,” and that the Appeal Agent or his representative would give him legal counsel on Selective Service matters at no charge. McGee returned this unopened, writing on the envelope

Returned pursuant to previous declaration and notification.

McGee also returned unopened an order directing him to appear for a physical examination scheduled for October 18, 1967, and did not appear for it. He returned a delinquency notice sent on November 22, 1967. McGee did open his induction notice, which was sent on January 11, 1968, and did report for and pass a physical examination at the induction center. However, he refused to submit to induction.

Meanwhile, McGee had matriculated in the Union Theological Seminary as a full-time student on September 27, 1967. At no time did he request a IY-D (student for the ministry) classification from his draft board, but he claims that his letter to the President in April 1967, an interview with two FBI agents in May 1967, and testimony before a grand jury in November 1967, gave his board sufficient information to require classifying him IV-D. At trial, it was established that the Union Theological Seminary is non-denominational, and that McGee’s parish priest recommended him to the Seminary. The chairman of McGee’s draft board testified outside the presence of the jury that before McGee was classified I-A in September 1967, all pertinent information in his Selective Service file was reviewed. Judge Murphy.found that the board considered and rejected appellant’s conscientious objector claim.

McGee argues that his local board acted unlawfully in classifying him I-A in September 1967, when in his view he should have been classified IV-D or I-O. On that premise he claims that he cannot be convicted of refusing to submit to induction (Count 1) because his order to report for induction was illegal; that he cannot be convicted of refusing to report for a physical examination (Count 2) because if he had been properly classified, he would not have been called for a physical or, if called, could have waived the examination without penalty; and that he cannot be convicted of failing to possess a valid notice of classification (Count 3) because his I-A classification was invalid. He also argues that he cannot be convicted of failure to supply information to his local board (Count 4) because he substantially complied with its request and because any information not supplied was favorable to him.

II.

We shall deal first with McGee’s claim that he was entitled to exemption from military service as a matter of law under 50 U.S.C.App. § 456(g), which provides that:

[Sjtudents preparing for the ministry under the direction of recognized churches or religious organizations, who are satisfactorily pursuing full-time courses of instruction in recognized theological or divinity schools * * * shall be exempt from training and service (but not from registration) under this title.

McGee contends that the statutory policy is so strong that the exemption may not be denied any registrant who meets the qualifications. He concedes that he did not request the exemption from his board, but claims that no such request is required by the statute or regulations. In any event he argues that the local board had sufficient knowledge of his qualification for the exemption to require its issuance.

It is true that section 456(g) is a mandatory provision in the sense that a draft board may not deny a IV-D exemption to one who qualifies for it. Oestereich v. Selective Service System Local Board No. 11, 393 U.S. 233, 89 S.Ct. 414, 21 L.Ed.2d 402 (1968).1 However, it does not follow that a registrant may totally disregard the administrative procedures established by the Selective Service System, and rely on his own evaluation of his right to a IV-D classification in the hope that a court will subsequently support his interpretation. While McKart V. United States, 395 U.S. 185, 195, 89 S.Ct. 1657, 1663, 23 L.Ed.2d 194 (1969), states that “[i]n Selective Service cases, the exhaustion doctrine must be tailored to fit the peculiarities of the administrative system Congress has created,” it recognizes that the exhaustion doctrine may well be applicable to IV-D claims like McGee’s, where the registrant is relying on facts never clearly presented— or indeed presented at all — to his local board.

Of course, it is necessary that the local board, which has the responsibility of classifying registrants in the first instance, be given the information necessary to perform its function. However, the present case does not present an instance where a registrant is trying to challenge a classification on the basis of facts not presented to the local board. In such a case, the smooth functioning of the system may well require that challenges to classifications based upon facts not properly presented to the board be barred.

395 U.S. at 198 n.15, 89 S.Ct. at 1665.

McKart dealt with the proper interpretation of the “sole surviving son” exemption, 50 U.S.C.App. § 456 (o), which the Court found to be only a question of statutory interpretation and “certainly not a matter of discretion.” Id. at 198, 89 S.Ct. at 1665. Accordingly, it refused to apply the exhaustion doctrine in that case because there was “simply no overwhelming need” to have the Selective Service System “resolve this question in the first instance, at least not where the administrative process is at an end and the registrant is faced with criminal prosecution.” Id. at 199, 89 S.Ct. at 1665. McKart’s claim was thus in sharp contrast to “classification questions which do involve expertise or the exercise of discretion, both by the local boards and the appeal boards.” Id. at 198, 89 S.Ct. at 1665. Thus,

Conscientious objector claims * * * or deferments for those engaged in activities deemed necessary “to the maintenance of the national health, safety, or interest” * * * would appear to be examples of questions requiring the application of expertise or the exercise of discretion. In such cases, the Selective Service System and the. courts may have a stronger interest in having the question decided in the first instance by the local board and then by the appeal board, which considers the question anew.

Id. at 198 n.16, 89 S.Ct. at 1665. In further distinguishing the earlier body of cases which did apply the exhaustion doctrine, the Court noted that:

[T]hose cases all involved ministerial or conscientious objector claims, claims that may well have to be pursued through the administrative procedures provided by the Selective Service laws.

Id. at 201, 89 S.Ct. at 1666.

McGee’s claim for a IV-D exemption here depended upon resolution of ' essentially factual issues-which are by no means conceded. This distinguishes such cases as McKart, swpra, where the facts were undisputed, and Oestereich, supra, where the board had already recognized the registrant’s right to a IV-D classification.2 Whatever the draft board’s determination might have been had McGee applied to it for IV-D status and supplied it with full information, even the facts adduced at trial, as will be seen below, do not show that he was so clearly entitled to that exemption that the draft board could have arrived at but one conclusion. Accordingly, McGee’s failure even to request a IV-D exemption from the local board or supply it with any supporting information is a sufficient ground for disposition of that claim.

Beyond that it is plain that denial of a IV-D exemption to McGee would have had a “basis in fact.” Under section 456(g), at least two requirements must be satisfied before a divinity student becomes entitled to a IV-D exemption: He must be a student preparing for the ministry under the direction of a recognized church or religious organization ; and he must be satisfactorily pursuing a full-time course of instruction in a recognized theological or divinity school. As to the latter, it is clear that at the time McGee refused induction3 he was a matriculated student at the Union Theological Seminary who was satisfactorily pursuing a full-time course of study. What is in dispute, however, is whether McGee was preparing for the ministry under the direction of a recognized church or religious organization. There is evidence in the record that McGee is a Catholic and that he intends ultimately to become a priest, but the evidence that he was studying under the direction of the Catholic Church when he refused induction is slim. His parish priest testified that he had recommended McGee to the Seminary, but that could have meant no more than that he thought McGee to be a serious and decent young man. The priest did not say he was in any way supervising McGee’s course of study. According to the record, the divinity school in which McGee enrolled is non-denominational and may contain many students who have not formulated the intention of entering the ministry and are not under the direction of any church or religious organization. The record discloses that at least some of the Catholic students at the school come from Catholic seminaries to take courses there, but McGee did not. Indeed, McGee apparently had been a student at such a Catholic seminary, but left to go to Hunter College and then the University of Rochester where he receive a Bachelor of Science degree.4 Accordingly, McGee’s local board would not have had to conclude that he was “preparing for the ministry under the direction of” the Catholic Church. Perhaps the board would have granted the exemption had McGee made the claim directly to it; perhaps not. But we cannot say that if it had followed the latter course, there would have been “no basis in fact” for its action.5

III.

In contrast to his inaction with respect to the IV-D claim, McGee had squarely placed his 1-0 application before the local board when he requested and completed the Special Form for Conscientious Objeetor in February 1966.6 He contends that there was no basis in fact for denying his conscientious objector claim and that his reclassification as I-A was thus unlawful.

We would be inclined to accept the first step in McGee’s argument. In his Form 150 he expressed his belief “in a personal Supreme Being to whom obligation is superior when duties of human relations are considered,” and said that “taking part in any form of military operation indicates an approval/consent situation repugnant * * * to love and service of God and fellow man.” These and other statements, if sincere, established that he, “by reason of religious training and belief, is conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form.” 50 U.S.C.App. § 456(j). Neither his prior nor his subsequent actions were. inconsistent with his assertions, see United States v. Haughton, 413 F.2d 736, 742 (9 Cir. 1969), and we see nothing in McGee’s file — all that was before the board — that could reasonably put his sincerity in issue. This is particularly significant in light of the board chairman’s testimony that McGee’s local board did not require an interview for conscientious objector applicants, although it undoubtedly could have.7

While in this case we have the benefit of the testimony of the chairman of the local board, that does not reveal any “basis in fact” for denying McGee’s application. As indicated, the statement of beliefs in his Form 150 would seem to meet - the statutory test, and what little testimony there is by the board chairman concerning McGee’s sincerity would, if anything, support a conclusion that the local board thought McGee was sincere. He testified that McGee “had been offered an alternative to the deferment he sought, which was a I-O, hospital service. He did not choose to avail himself of that.” He further testified that “[t]here was a letter written * * * where we were advised that the young man would not accept a I-O or inferred that he wouldn’t.” This testimony was inaccurate. The letter referred to was by John A. Murray, dated February 1966; far from indicating that McGee would not accept a. I-O, it was in support of his application.8

Acceptance of so much of McGee’s argument still does not lead to his conclusion unless he is to be excused from failure to appeal his I-A classification. We see no reason for doing so. To the passages from McKart already quoted, we add another, 395 U.S. at 200, 89 S.Ct. at 1666:

[T]oday’s holding does not apply to every registrant who fails to take advantage of the administrative remedies provided by the Selective Service System. For, as we have said, many classifications require exercise of discretion or application of expertise; in these cases, it may be proper to require a registrant to carry his case through the administrative process before he comes into court.

Mr. Justice Marshall listed four factors that ordinarily justify application of the exhaustion doctrine to bar a defendant from challenging a local board’s classification: (1) “judicial review may be hindered by the failure of the litigant to allow the agency to make a factual record, or to exercise its discretion or apply its expertise”; (2) judicial efficiency may be furthered because a “complaining party may be successful in vindicating his rights in the administrative process”; (3) “notions of administrative autonomy require that the agency be given a chance to discover and correct its own errors”; and (4) “it is possible that frequent and deliberate flouting of administrative processes could weaken the effectiveness of an agency by encouraging people to ignore its procedures.” 395 U.S. at 194-195, 89 S.Ct. at 1663. All the last three factors are present here. An appeal might well have led to McGee’s obtaining a 1-0 classification and have avoided the judicial — and prosecutorial — effort that his flouting of the processes of the Selective Service System has caused. The System should have been given an opportunity to correct the error of the local board. And sanctioning McGee’s deliberate refusal to avail himself of procedures which the Government had made available to him would encourage others to do so, especially in cases where the chances of success in court seem good.

On all this we find ourselves in agreement with the sensitive opinion of Judge Goodrich and in disagreement with the able dissent of Judge Maris in a case strikingly similar to McGee's, United States v. Palmer, 223 F.2d 893 (3 Cir.), cert. denied) 350 U.S. 873, 76 S.Ct. 116, 100 L.Ed. 772 (1955). We agree also with the decision of another court of appeals, made in the light of McKart, which refused to excuse failure to appeal the revocation of a hardship deferment, United States v. Powers, 413 F.2d 834 (1 Cir. 1969).9 The entire subject has just been exhaustively canvassed by the Ninth Circuit in Lockhart v. United States, 420 F.2d 1143, decided December 18, 1969, and we agree with Judge Ely’s opinion for a majority of the court in banc. Moreover, the position taken by the two dissenting judges supports “forfeiture of judicial review” for failure to exhaust “when the registrant has deliberately sought to subvert and evade the administrative process,” the situation here, as distinguished from a case where the “default was merely inadvertent or negligent.”

Our brother Feinberg argues for a different result on the basis that the board, “never passed on” the conscientious objector claim. We do not read the record that way. The board chairman, called as a defense witness at the trial in November 1968, said that when the McGee conscientious objection application was filed in 1966, he thought “there weren’t sufficient facts * * * to motivate me to grant the registrant the request he sought” and that “what he set forth did not motivate me to grant him the relief he sought.” He denied instructing the clerk to write that the conscientious objection claim had not been considered — a point on which the letter was ambiguous. He stated also that when the board gave McGee a I-A classification in 1967, “we again reviewed what appeared in the file,” that “we reviewed the record of the young man’s case when we gave him the I-A and all pertinent information therein contained,” and that “the board considered the whole file before it reclassified Mr. McGee I-A on September 19, 1967.” While the chairman also testified that “based on our previous determination that his request for conscientious objection status was denied, we had no alternative at that time but to give him a I-A,” we read this as meaning only that the chairman remembered the Board’s dissatisfaction with McGee's showing when his application was examined in early 1966 and that the Board saw no reason to change their minds eighteen months later. Judge Murphy, who saw and heard the witness, found “as a fact that the draft board considered the defendant’s application for a conscientious objector status and that was considered by the whole board on September 23." We do not see how this finding can be regarded as “clearly erroneous.”

However, even if there had been an inadvertent failure to consider the conscientious objection claim in September 1967, as the dissent assumes, we would reach the same conclusion. This is precisely the kind of thing that a personal appearance or a conference with the Appeal Agent, which McGee was invited to have in the letter he returned unopened, would have been almost certain to reveal, with the result that the board would have passed on the merits of McGee’s claim. Quite possibly it would have acted favorably; if it had not, the error would very likely have been corrected on appeal.10 Despite their name, appeal boards do not perform simply a reviewing function. “It is universally held that the Appeal Board considers matters of classification de novo and its classification is one of first instance, not a mere affirmance or reversal of the Local Board, and that any such prejudice on the local level is cured by a fair consideration on the appeal,” De Remer v. United States, 340 F.2d 712, 719 (8 Cir. 1965) (citing cases). See 32 C.F.R. § 1626.26; McKart v. United States, supra, 395 U.S. at 198 n. 16, 89 S.Ct. 1657, 23 L.Ed.2d 194; Storey v. United States, 370 F.2d 255, 260 (9 Cir. 1966) (citing cases); Clay v. United States, 397 F.2d 901, 912-913 (5 Cir. 1968), vacated and remanded on other grounds, 394 U.S. 310, 89 S.Ct. 1164, 22 L.Ed.2d 297 (1969); Note, The Selective Service, 76 Yale L.J. 160, .171 (1966). As already indicated, the fact that McGee had a good factual case for appeal in no way points against insistence on his taking one; a case of statutory construction like McKart differs since on such a matter there is a positive advantage in resort to the courts which alone can decide the issue authoritatively and uniformly for the benefit of all registrants. Instead McGee’s stiff-necked refusal to have any dealings with the Selective Service System has caused the expenditure of countless hours by prosecutors, grand and petit jurors, and judges of the trial and appellate courts. If we were free to look at his case alone, we might still be tempted to take the charitable view of our dissenting brother. But if we should do that in McGee’s case, we would be obliged to do it in every other similar one. Of course it seems “harsh” when the exhaustion requirement results in a conviction for refusal to submit to induction by a registrant with a seemingly good claim for exemption. But one of the main points of the exhaustion doctrine is to relieve the courts from having to consider claims that ought to be dealt with in the first instance by administrative agencies; it cannot properly be limited to those persons whose claims would fail in court anyway.

While there are exceptions to the rule requiring a conscientious objector to appeal from a denial of his claim, none comes close to this case. Claimants are not required to exhaust administrative remedies in order to attack the constitutionality of the statute, United States v. Sisson, 294 F.Supp. 520 (D. Mass.1968) (Wyzanski, J.), probable jurisdiction noted, 396 U.S. 812, 90 S.Ct. 92, 24 L.Ed.2d 65 (1969), or the regulations, United States v. Branigan, 299 F. Supp. 225, 233-236 (S.D.N.Y.1969) (Weinfeld, J.), on the sensible ground that since local and appeal boards have no authority to determine constitutional claims, exhaustion would be a useless formality. Another qualification to the appeal requirement relates to “exceptional and unusual circumstances underlying the failure to appeal,” Thompson v. United States, 380 F.2d 86, 88 (10 Cir. 1967) (emphasis added). But that line of cases holds only that neglecting to appeal is not a bar to judicial review of classification if the registrant’s failure was justified. Examples are Donato v. United States, 302 F.2d 468 (9 Cir. 1962) (registrant received notice of classification while away on firefighting duties; by the time he returned the period for appeal had lapsed); Glover v. United States, 286 F.2d 84 (8 Cir. 1961) (registrant had unsuccessfully appealed a pri- or classification; when he received his fifth notice of classification, an exact duplicate of the fourth, there was no reason to expect him to go through the process again in the absence of an explanation from the board for the new notice);11 | Powers v. Powers, 400 F.2d 438 (5 Cir. 1968) (registrant given misinformation by the secretary of the local board regarding right to appeal); United States v. Harris, 302 F.Supp. 1194 (D.Ore.1968) (registrant not charged with knowledge of right to appeal since he had little education and read with difficulty). The “exceptional circumstances” doctrine was recently reaffirmed and perhaps extended in United States v. Davis, 413 F.2d 148 (4 Cir. 1969), which held that the local board’s failure to advise the registrant of the availability of a government appeal agent excused him from exhaustion; “If an Appeal Agent does nothing more than advise a registrant that he may lose his right to contest his classification when he is criminally prosecuted in the district court by failure to administratively appeal, it would seem to be worthwhile.” But that cannot avail McGee who had advised the local board in no uncertain terms that he would not read anything they sent him, and would not have appealed no matter what he was told. While McGee’s motives for taking this attitude may have been of the highest, they do not excuse his failure to seek the relief which the law afforded him. To countenance this would needlessly multiply the already heavy burden that cases like his are imposing on the courts.

IV.

We therefore affirm McGee’s conviction on Count 1 for refusing to submit to induction. Since his claims with respect to Counts 2 and 3 hinge on the alleged impropriety of his I-A classification, we affirm the convictions on these counts also, without any need to consider what the proper result would be if we had held the I-A classification invalid. In light of the concurrent sentences there is no need to consider the conviction under Count 4 under the circumstances here presented.

Affirmed.