United States v. Richard Allen Guymon

Appellant, Richard Guymon, was convicted of violating 50 App.U.S.C. § 462 (failure to perform a duty required of him under the Selective Service Act).

Guymon’s Board denied his claim for classification as a conscientious objector without any basis in fact supporting the denial. Guymon appealed the resulting I-A classification, and his appeal was rejected by a vote of two to one. The notice of rejection of his appeal was sent to Guymon on July 17, 1968. The dissenting vote on the Appeal Board gave him a right to appeal to the President pursuant to 32 C.F.R. § 1627.3 . Because Guymon did not avail himself of an appeal to the President, the Government argues that he failed to exhaust his administrative remedies and that he is thereby foreclosed from raising the error in his classification as a defense to his prosecution for failing to report for induction. We do not reach the exhaustion issue, because we hold that the notice of induction was void.

The dissenting vote on the Appeal Board not only gave Guymon thirty days within which to take an appeal to the President, but also stripped his local Board of the power to send him a notice of induction until the thirty days had run. ( 32…