Paul Brown Maynard v. United States

Appellant, a Jehovah’s Witness, was placed in Selective Service Class I-A by both his local Selective Service Board and an Appeal Board, despite his claim to be a conscientious objector. When called for service, he refused to be inducted. This led to his conviction under 50 U.S.C. App. § 462 (Supp. Ill, 1968) and a sentence of three years imprisonment. He urges on appeal that there was no basis in fact for the Board’s refusal to classify him as a conscientious objector, and therefore the conviction must be reversed.

The range of judicial review of the determinations of Selective Service Boards has been called “the narrowest known to the law.” Blalock v. United States, 247 F.2d 615, 619 (4th Cir. 1957). The “basis in fact” which will support the Board’s decisions need not even rise to the level of “substantial evidence.” All that is required is that where the registrant has made out a prima facie case for exemption, there must be “some proof that is incompatible with the registrant’s proof of exemption.” Dickinson v. United States, 346 U.S. 389, 396 , 74 S.Ct. 152, 157 , 98 L.Ed. 132 (1953).

The nature of such proof depends upon the nature of the prima facie case. In Dickinson,…