Bert Kenneth Kanewske v. Paul H. Nitze, Secretary of the Navy

These two appeals are from denials of separate habeas corpus petitions filed by a navy enlistee- — -the first one seeking to effect his release from the brig into which he had been put following his commission of some military-code offenses, and the second one seeking to effect his release from the imprisonment for the offenses to which he was thereafter subjected by a court martial sentence.

The grounds on which appellant predicated his claim of right to be released from the detention and be discharged from the naval service were the same in both petitions; that he had become a conscientious objector a few months after his enlistment and entry into the service ; that he had made application to be discharged from the service on this basis; that the Secretary of the Navy had arbitrarily and unwarrantedly denied the application; and that the improper consideration and unwarranted denial involved as to the application had caused his enlistment tenure and armed-forces membership to terminate. It was his contention that he therefore was not in the navy when he committed the acts involved; that there thus could not exist any naval or court martial jurisdiction over him as to the acts;…