Richard D. Glazier v. Capt. James G. Hackel, Company Commander

Pursuant to Army Regulation 600-200, Richard D. Glazier, an enlisted member of the United States Army, applied for classification as a conscientious objector to combatant training and service (Class I-A-O), and for assignment to noncombatant duty. The Department of the Army disapproved his application. Glazier then filed a petition for habeas corpus alleging that the Department had failed to comply with its own regulations and that its decision was arbitrary and without basis in fact. The district court dismissed the petition on the ground that “the reclassification of the plaintiff to ,the class sought will not accomplish his discharge, and therefore does not entitle him to any relief under habeas corpus.” We reverse.

As the government concedes, habeas corpus is the accepted vehicle for judicial review of a military depart ment’s administrative denial of a serviceman’s application for classification as a conscientious objector to both combatant and noncombatant training and service (Class I-O), and for discharge. The watershed opinion is that of Judge Kaufman in Hammond v. Lenfest, 398 F.2d 705 (2d Cir. 1968). The Supreme Court recently reviewed the merits of such an…