Reed v. United States. Parkhurst v. United States

These cases were separately tried 'but were consolidated for purposes of appeal inasmuch as the main question they present is identical. The charge against each appellant was that, having been duly placed in Class I-A under the provisions of the Universal Military Training and Service Act, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 451 et seq., and ordered to report for induction into the armed forces, he refused to submit to induction. Verdicts of guilty were returned in each case.

Appellants are members of Christ’s Clmroh of the Golden Rule, and both claimed exemption from military service as student ministers of that institution. They contended that their manual labor on Church projects is part of the divinity studies and religious training prescribed by the tenets of their sect, hence they were entitled to a 1V-D classification. They were granted personal hearings oil the claim before their respective local hoards, but failed to satisfy those hoards or the appeal boards that they were eligible for the classification they sought. Accordingly they were placed in the class of those available for general military service. They reported for induction but concededly refused to submit thereto.

On his…