David Bruce Miller v. United States

Appellant was convicted on a jury-waived trial of refusing to submit to induction into the Armed Forces in violation of 50 U.S.C. App. § 462 and was sentenced to five years imprisonment.

The determinative question here is whether the manner in which the Local Selective Service Board handled and disposed of appellant’s claim to be a conscientious objector and his request for a change of classification on this basis was legally invalid so as to make his refusal to be inducted not an unlawful act in the circumstances. Appellant’s motion for acquittal upon this ground was denied by the District Court. We must reverse.

Appellant had been registered in the Selective Service System since May 28, 1962. His local board made reclassification of him as Class I-A (available for military service) on June 30, 1965. A preinduction physical examination was taken and passed by him on August 26, 1965. On September 21, 1965, he filed with the local board a letter claiming to have become a conscientious objector and requesting a copy of Special Form for Conscientious Objector (SSS Form No. 150) for execution by him.

The Selective Service Regulations require that this form be used by an alleged…