Joseph Parisi v. Major General Phillip B. Davidson

This is an interlocutory appeal, under 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (b), from an Order of the District Court, staying habeas corpus proceedings brought under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 until trial and final determination of court-martial charges then lodged against the appellant.

The complex history of the case is set out in detail in the margin. Briefly, Parisi is an army private who alleges that his application for discharge as a conscientious objector was denied by the army without a basis in fact for the denial. His petition was first presented to the District Court in November, 1969, but proceedings were stayed pending his administrative appeal to the Army Board for Correction of Military Records [ABCMR]. A partial preliminary injunction also issued, prohibiting Parisi’s assignment to any duties which required materially greater participation in combat activity or training than was being required of him in his then duties,

Before the ABCMR’s decision, however, Parisi was ordered to Viet Nam, where he was to perform noncombatant duties similar to those which had been assigned to him and which he had been performing in this country. After unsuccessful attempts to win a stay of his redeployment…