Rosenfield v. Selective Service System, Local Board No. 19

298 F. Supp. 276, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8959
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 13, 1969
DocketCiv. A. No. 69-156
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 298 F. Supp. 276 (Rosenfield v. Selective Service System, Local Board No. 19) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rosenfield v. Selective Service System, Local Board No. 19, 298 F. Supp. 276, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8959 (W.D. Pa. 1969).

Opinion

OPINION

GERALD J. WEBER, District Judge.

Plaintiff, a registrant under the Selective Service Act, ordered to report for induction February 20, 1969, files this action to restrain and enjoin the Selective Service System and Local Board 19 from ordering him to report for induction into the Armed Forces of the United States, and to adjudge that he is entitled to a 1-S Classification as a matter of right.

Plaintiff seeks this extraordinary preinduction judicial relief despite the provisions of § 10(b) (3) [50 U.S.C.A. App. § 460(b) (3)] of the Selective Service Act of 1967 which precludes judicial review of classification or processing of a registrant by local boards except as a defense to a criminal prosecution for violation of the Act. His basis for this proceeding is the jurisdiction rested in the United States District Courts under 28 U.S.C. § 1331, (federal question jurisdic[277]*277tion), § 1361 (mandamus jurisdiction), and § 2201 (declaratory judgment relief). In particular he relies upon the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Oestereich v. Selective Service System Local Board, 393 U.S. 233, 89 S.Ct. 414, 21 L.Ed.2d 402, [Dec. 16, 1968], which held that § 10(b) (3) did not bar one reclassified in defiance of a clear statutory grant of exemption from suing to enjoin induction. Plaintiff bases his claim to relief on an allegation of a clear statutory grant of a statutory deferment of 1-S under § 6(i) (2) of the Act.

Upon the filing of a petition for preliminary injunction, a hearing was set and evidence taken. From the evidence presented and the stipulations made we find the following facts:

1. Plaintiff is Michael L. Rosenfield, of Pittsburgh, Pa., born September 18, 1946, and is registered under the Selective Service Act of 1967 with Local Board 19, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

2. Plaintiff is now a second-year student in a professional graduate school, Dickinson School of Law, at Carlisle, Pa., satisfactorily pursuing a full-time course of instruction.

3. Plaintiff was registered with Local Board 19 on November 25, 1964, and received the following pertinent classification :

April 13, 1965 - Classified 2-S until 6-1-65.

Feb. 16, 1966 - Classified 2-S until 6-1-66.

Feb. 7, 1966 - Classified 2-S until 10-1-67.

Feb. 14, 1967 - Notice of acceptance as professional student.

Sept. 25, 1967 - Notice of entry into professional school.

Oct. 11, 1967 - Classified 2-S until Sept. 1,1968.

June 20, 1968 - Classified 1-A.

July 16, 1968 - Requested personal appearance and opportunity to appeal.

Aug. 14, 1968 - Appeared personally and submitted petition for reclassification of 2-S as a law student.

Aug. 14, 1968 - Classified 1-A.

Oct. 30, 1968 - Ordered to report for induction November 20, 1968.

Nov. 1, 1968 - Request for postponement of induction until after completion of current semester, January 16, 1969.

Nov. 8, 1968 - State Director, Selective Service System approves request for postponement of induction until the February 1969 induction call.

Jan. 31, 1969 - Ordered to report for induction February 20,1969.

From the foregoing it appears that the registrant has received deferment both as an undergraduate and as a post-bacealaureate professional student. It is noted that no appeal was taken from the Local Board’s classification.

The question upon which our jurisdiction depends in this matter is whether plaintiff’s Local Board was under a mandatory statutory duty to grant plaintiff a 1-S deferment upon facts being presented to the Local Board that he was satisfactorily pursuing a full-time course of instruction as a second year graduate student in a professional school of law. Only in the case of a clear departure from the statutory mandate may we entertain jurisdiction in face of the [278]*278limitation on pre-induction judicial review of § 10(b) (3) of the Act.

Nor may we consider the case if the plaintiff’s right to receive a 1-S Classification is within the discretion of the Local Board.

We by-pass for the present the question of whether plaintiff is barred from maintaining this action because of his failure to pursue a readily available administrative remedy, i. e. an appeal from his 1-A Classification. Whether an administrative appeal is a prerequisite to the relief sought here was not at issue in O estereich, because there the administrative appeal had been taken.

Plaintiff’s complaint bases his claim of statutory right on § 6(i) (2) of the Act. This section provides that a person pursuing a full time course of instruction at a college, university or similar institution, who is ordered to report for induction, shall, upon the facts being presented to the local board, be deferred (A) until the end of the academic year, or (B) until he ceases to pursue such course of instruction.

Thus far, plaintiff qualifies, but the section continues:

“Provided:
* * * or any person who hereafter is deferred under the provision of this subsection shall not be further deferred by reason of pursuit of a course of instruction at a college * * * except as may be provided by regulations prescribed by the President pursuant to the provisions of subsection (h) of this section.”

Has the plaintiff been deferred under the provisions of subsection (i) (2) ?

Plaintiff received undergraduate deferments as an undergraduate under the mandatory provisions of § (h) (1). He also received a deferment for his first year of professional post-graduate study by being classified 2-S on October 11, 1967.

Under what statutory provision was this granted subsequent to the effective date of the Selective Service Act of 1967, June 30, 1967?

The sole authority that we can find for plaintiff’s 2-S deferment during his first year of post-graduate professional study is the President’s Executive Order 11360, of July 4,1967, now set forth in 32 C.F.R. 1622.26(b):

“ * * * Any registrant enrolled for his first year of post-baccalaureate study in a graduate school or a professional school on October 1, 1967 * * may be placed in Class II-S * * * and shall be deferred for one academic year only * * * ”

The only statutory authority we can find for this regulation is the following portion of § 6(i) (2) which reads:

“Nothing in this paragraph shall be deemed to preclude the President from providing, by regulations prescribed under subsection (h) of this section, for the deferment from training and service in the Armed Forces * * * of any category or categories of students for such periods of time as he may deem appropriate.”

We arrive at the conclusion that the regulation of 32 C.F.R. 1622.26(b) can only be derived from § 6(i) (2) of the statute because no other portion of the Act authorizes such a classification.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
298 F. Supp. 276, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8959, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rosenfield-v-selective-service-system-local-board-no-19-pawd-1969.