United States v. Jeffrey Paul Browning

We vacated the submission of this case to await the decisions of the United States Supreme Court in Gutknecht v. United States, (1/19/70) 396 U.S. 295 , 90 S.Ct. 506 , 24 L.Ed.2d 532 and Breen v. Selective Service Board (1/26/70) 396 U.S. 460 , 90 S.Ct. 661 , 24 L.Ed.2d 653 . Those decisions require the reversal of Browning’s conviction for refusing induction into the armed services, 50 U.S.C. App. § 462(a).

The combined effect of Gutknecht and Breen is to forbid the use of Selective Service delinquency regulations to accelerate the induction of a registrant. Breen involved the reclassification of a registrant from II-S to I-A. Gutknecht involved the promotion of a I-A registrant from the third priority to the first priority category of potential inductees.

Browning’s II-S classification expired on October 31, 1967. On November 8, 1967 he returned his Registration Certificate and his Notice of Classification to his local board together with a letter refusing to accept any classifica tion. On November 15, 1967 the local board declared him delinquent and classified him I-A. A notice in Browning’s file stated that the delinquency declaration had been made pursuant to Selective…