Don A. Brown v. United States

Convicted of the offense of refusal to submit to induction under the provisions of the Universal Military Training and Service Act, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 451 et seq., Brown appeals and includes in his list of assigned errors in the court below, the assertion that the refusal of the Selective Service Boards to grant him exemption as a minister of religion was without basis in fact and that such action on the part of the boards was arbitrary and capricious.

When Brown filed his questionnaire and later when he appeared before the local board in support of his claim for exemption, he fell short of being able to show that he was entitled to a ministerial classification. He was then employed as a block setter working on an average of 40 hours a week for a lumber company at Sonora, California. While he claimed to be an ordained minister because he had been baptized, yet at the time of his appearance before the board he was unable to furnish any evidence that he was the minister of any congregation or that he was engaged in any particular religious activity aside from the fact that he was saving his money in order to be able to attend a religious convention in Paris. However, subsequent…