United States v. Barraza

5 M.J. 230, 1978 CMA LEXIS 10822
CourtUnited States Court of Military Appeals
DecidedJuly 17, 1978
DocketNo. 33,802; CM 435024
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 5 M.J. 230 (United States v. Barraza) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Military Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Barraza, 5 M.J. 230, 1978 CMA LEXIS 10822 (cma 1978).

Opinion

FLETCHER, Chief Judge:

In July of 1975 the appellant, a member of the New York National Guard, was ordered to active duty in the United States Army for a period of approximately 20 months on account of the determination made by his unit commander that his performance in meeting his unit training as[231]*231sembly requirements was unsatisfactory.1 While on active duty, he was found guilty, by a general court-martial, contrary to his pleas, of possession and distribution of cocaine, in violation of Article 92, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. § 892, which were alleged to have occurred in January 1976. The members of his court-martial in April 1976 sentenced him to a bad-conduct discharge, confinement at hard labor for 12 months, forfeiture of $150 pay per month for the same period and reduction to the grade of E-l. A new convening authority, due to the disqualification of the original convening authority, reduced the period of confinement and forfeitures to nine months, but otherwise approved the sentence as adjudged. The Court of Military Review affirmed the findings and this sentence, limiting its unreported opinion to consideration of an issue related to United States v. Goode, 1 M.J. 3 (C.M.A.1975), but not relevant to our review of this case.

The appellant argues on appeal, as he did below, that his court-martial had no lawful jurisdiction over his person to try him for these offenses. In particular, he contends that the failure of the Government to comply with essential procedural requirements in his involuntary activation amounted to an unconstitutional denial of administrative due process which invalidated his orders to active duty. See United States v. Kilbreth, 22 U.S.C.M.A. 390, 47 C.M.R. 327 (1973). Accordingly, he concludes that he was not properly subject to the U.C.M.J. within the meaning of Article 2, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. 802, nor could he be lawfully tried by court-martial for drug offenses allegedly committed during the period covered by these invalid orders.

The military judge at the court-martial denied, without stating his reasons, a similar motion to dismiss made by the defense counsel. This occurred after the Government had introduced documentary evidence concerning the involuntary activation and the actual military service of the appellant pursuant to these allegedly invalid orders. The Government, in its final brief, does not challenge these allegations of certain procedural deficiencies in the appellant’s activation process. Nevertheless, government appellate counsel argues in the alternative that the conviction should be affirmed. First, he asserts that the appellant’s failure to appeal his involuntary activation orders as required by regulations bars him under the doctrine of exhaustion of administrative remedies from challenging the propriety of these orders for the first time at a court-martial for charges unrelated to the call-up. See McGee v. United States, 402 U.S. 479, 91 S.Ct. 1565, 29 L.Ed.2d 47 (1971). Secondly, he argues that the conduct of the appellant, under the circumstances of this case, amounted to a waiver of all procedural defects in his activation so as to render the orders valid and the court-martial lawful. See United States v. Kilbreth, supra, 22 U.S.C.M.A. at 392, 393, 47 C.M.R. at 329, 330. In view of the Government’s position, we believe this case may be resolved on the basis of the merits of these contentions in support of court-martial jurisdiction.

I

The initial argument raised by the Government is that the failure of the appellant to appeal his involuntary activation orders in accordance with pertinent service regulations 2 should bar him from now contesting their propriety as a jurisdictional base for his present court-martial.3 In substance the Government urges this Court to apply the doctrine of exhaustion of administrative remedies to prevent the appellant from belatedly raising his due process ehal[232]*232lenges4 to his activation orders. We simply do not believe it proper to extend the doctrine of exhaustion of administrative remedies stated in McGee v. United States, supra, to courts-martial where an accused constitutionally challenges involuntary activation orders as a basis for jurisdiction over his person. We find application of this doctrine to be an unsound judicial practice, even though the service person fails to raise these issues before the military administrative agencies provided by service regulations to hear appeals from activation orders.

In McGee v. United States, supra, the focal governmental interest justifying the use of the exhaustion doctrine was the necessity of allowing the draft board to make a factual determination and record for the classification of McGee as a conscientious objector.5 The validity of McGee’s claim to exempt status as a ministerial student or conscientious objector depended on the application of expertise by administrative bodies in resolving underlying issues of fact. The Supreme Court recognized that, as expressly noted in McKart v. United States, 395 U.S. 185,198 n. 16, 89 S.Ct. 1657, 23 L.Ed.2d 194 (1969), “. . . as to classification claims turning on the resolution of particularistic fact questions, ‘the Selective Service System and the courts may have a stronger interest in having the question decided in the first instance by the local board and then by an appeal board, which considers the question anew.’ ” 6 In this situation,

[s]uch a default directly jeopardizes the functional autonomy of the administrative bodies on which Congress has conferred the primary responsibility to decide questions of fact relating to the proper classification of Selective Service registrants.7

In view of this rationale, the exhaustion doctrine cannot reasonably be construed to apply inflexibly to all challenges to activation orders. Rather, it only applies to those challenges consistent with an understanding of the doctrine’s purposes and the particular administrative scheme involved. “The basic purpose of the exhaustion doctrine is to allow an administrative agency to perform functions within its special competence — to make a factual record, to apply its expertise, and to correct its own errors so as to moot judicial controversies.”8 At issue in the appellant’s challenge to his activation orders is not a fact question alone, but the legal issues of noncompliance with service regulations and possible prejudice inuring to the appellant. We do not believe the military administrative agencies have any particular expertise, as compared to a court, to determine these questions of constitutional administrative due process in the involuntary activation procedure. Likewise, we note that the service regulations provide that a factual record of compliance with essential procedural requirements must be made by the Government prior to activation orders being issued.9

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Bluebook (online)
5 M.J. 230, 1978 CMA LEXIS 10822, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-barraza-cma-1978.