United States v. MacDonald

340 F. Supp. 7, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14640
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedMarch 15, 1972
DocketNo. CR 71-973
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 340 F. Supp. 7 (United States v. MacDonald) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. MacDonald, 340 F. Supp. 7, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14640 (N.D. Cal. 1972).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR JUDGMENT OF ACQUITTAL

ZIRPOLI, District Judge.

This is a prosecution for failure to submit to induction in violation of 50 U.S.C. App. § 462(a). The defendant registered with his local board on December 22, 1969. He was classified I-A on August 10, 1970 and subsequently ordered to report for a pre-induction physical examination on October 15, 1970. DD Form 62 was properly mailed. On December 30, 1970, defendant’s local board ordered him to report for induction on January 25, 1971. After a postponement to permit consideration of defendant’s belated claim of conscientious objection, defendant finally refused to submit to induction on March 24, 1971. This prosecution followed.

The defendant makes five arguments in support of his motion for judgment of acquittal. He challenges the manner of review of his case by the State and National Directors of the Selective Service System; he also alleges that he was misled as to the nature and consequences of induction; his remaining three arguments pertain to the acceleration of his selection for induction. Pursuant to the defendant’s request for findings of fact, the court will briefly consider each of these arguments. F.R.Crim.P. Rule 23(c).

The claim that the State and National Directors of the Selective Service System did not exercise their discretion to intervene in the defendant’s case under 32 C.F.R. § 1625.3(a) is patently without merit. The National Director replied to the defendant’s request for intervention as follows: “After having given careful consideration to the information presented in your correspondence, this Headquarters finds no basis for administrative action on our part at this time.” The State Director replied similarly: “On the basis of the information you submitted, this Headquarters can find no basis for intervention in your case.” Both letters make it clear that the Directors did exercise their discretion under § 1625.3(a) and decided not to intervene. This is all the law requires. See United States v. Lloyd, 431 F.2d 160, 171 (9th Cir. 1970): “While we would not disturb the State Director’s exercise of his discretion in this matter, due process does require that [9]*9this discretion be exercised. United States ex rel. Accardi v. Shaughnessy, 347 U.S. 260, 268, 74 S.Ct. 499, 98 L.Ed. 681.”

The defendant next claims that he was misled because he was not informed that he could present his claim of conscientious objection after induction, although Ehlert v. United States, 402 U.S. 99, 105-107, 91 S.Ct. 1819, 28 L.Ed.2d 625 (1971), makes it clear that he could. While it would be desirable if the local boards informed registrants submitting post-induction order claims of conscientious objection that such claims would be considered by the military after induction, the court cannot conclude that a local board is under a mandatory duty to do so. See United States v. Camara, 451 F.2d 1122 (1st Cir. 1971). As the court said in United States v. Lansing, 424 F.2d 225, 227 (9th Cir. 1970): “We need not delimit in this case the precise scope of a misleading government conduct defense. For it is clear that more is required than a simple showing that the defendant was as a subjective matter misled, and that the crime resulted from his mistaken belief.” The failure charged here is not sufficient to constitute the unconscionably misleading conduct the courts require.

Two of defendant’s “order of call” defenses are similarly without merit. The defendant’s induction was not accelerated by an overcall. The Notice of Call on Local Board (SSS Form 210) requested 54 registrants; the defendant’s local board listed 59 men for induction with the Delivery List (SSS Form 261) showing one registrant postponed and four cancelled.

“The problems of the State Director must be borne in mind and the regulations read with sufficient flexibility to provide him room to meet his responsibilities. His duty to the state is to deliver a specified number of men. The question remains how many men must be ordered for induction in order to meet this quota. The responsibility for determining this question, in California at least, is assumed by the State Director and his determination is based on state-wide experience as to the extent of state-wide overcall of registrants necessary to produce the state quota.” United States v. Jones, 431 F.2d 619, 620 (9th Cir. 1970).

Nor was the defendant’s induction accelerated by the illegal bypassing of other registrants who were, or should have been, available for induction on December 30, 1970. United States v. Smith, 443 F.2d 1278 (9th Cir. 1971), requires the defendant to establish this defense by showing that the local board violated a specific regulation which delayed significantly the time when a higher priority registrant became fully acceptable for induction. However,

“[i]t is not the function of this court to undertake a full-scale review of administrative procedure, or to establish arbitrary time deadlines. Where the regulations provide such deadlines, they will be enforced. Otherwise, in the absence of intentional delay, discriminatory treatment, or favoritism, the administrative action will be upheld.” Id. at 1280.

To prevail in this case, the defendant must show that three registrants were illegally bypassed. The government has conceded two; the court is unable to discover a third. Accordingly, the court finds no merit to the defendant’s first two order of call defenses.

The defendant’s third order of call argument arises from the implementation of the lottery system of selecting men for induction into the armed forces. 32 C.F.R. § 1631.7(b) provides:

(b) Registrants shall be selected and ordered to report for induction in the following categories and in the order indicated:
(1) Volunteers who have not attained the age of 26 years in the sequence in which they have volunteered for induction.
(2) Nonvolunteers in the Extended Priority Selection Group in the order of their random sequence number es[10]*10tablished by random selection procedures prescribed in accordance with paragraph (d) of Section 1631.5.
(3) Nonvolunteers in the First Priority Selection Group in the order of their random sequence number established by random selection procedures prescribed in accordance with paragraph (d) of Section 1631.5.
(4) Nonvolunteers in each of the lower priority selection groups, in turn, within the group in the order of their random sequence number established by random selection procedures prescribed in accordance with paragraph (d) of Section 1631.5.

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373 F. Supp. 1392 (S.D. New York, 1974)
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461 F.2d 664 (Ninth Circuit, 1972)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
340 F. Supp. 7, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14640, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-macdonald-cand-1972.