Ex parte Beales
Ex parte BEALES
- Proceeding
- district
- Outcome
- writ denied — Demurrer sustained, and petition denied.
- Area
- other
- Panel
- Dooijng (author)
Analysis
The court considered a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by a British subject seeking discharge from military service under the Selective Service Act of 1917 based on his alienage. The court sustained the demurrer and denied the petition, holding that the petitioner waived his exemption claim and that the local board's classification was final and not subject to judicial review.
| What the court decided | The model |
|---|---|
Demurrer to the petition for writ of habeas corpus sustained and petition denied.“The demurrer to the petition will therefore be sustained, and the petition denied.” | agree with court The court correctly applied the principle that the Selective Service Act vested final authority in the local boards to classify registrants. The petitioner explicitly waived his claim to exemption in his questionnaire, and the board acted in accordance with the President's regulations. Under the law as it stood in 1918 (prior to the Supreme Court's decision in *Dietz v. United States*, 253 U.S. 272 (1920), which later limited this finality), courts generally held that board decisions were not subject to habeas corpus review if a fair hearing was provided. The order recites that a fair hearing occurred and the waiver was made, making the denial of relief consistent with the controlling legal framework of the time. |
The order itself: sound — The order is sound within the legal context of 1918. It correctly identifies the statutory and regulatory basis for the petitioner's classification and applies the then-prevailing judicial doctrine that local board decisions, made after a fair hearing and in accordance with regulations, were final and not subject to habeas corpus review. The court accurately notes the petitioner's waiver of exemption claims, which was dispositive under the regulations cited.
Opinion — Dooijng
DOOIJNG, District Judge.
Petitioner is a subject of Great Britain within the draft age, who has not declared, his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and duly registered under the Selective Service Act (Act May 18, 1917, c. 15, 40 Stat. 76). In his questionnaire he waived all claim to exemption and was placed by the local board in class 1A. Having been called to service, he now seeks by means of a writ of habeas corpus to be discharged therefrom because he is such alien. The Selective Service Act, however, provides:
“That persons shall be subject to registration as herein provided who shall have attained their twenty-first birthday and who shall not have attained their thirty-first birthday on, or before the day set for registration, and all persons so registered shall he and remain subject to draft into the forces hereby authorized, unless exempted or excused therefrom as in the act provided.”
It may be noted that the word used here is not “exempt,” but “exempted” ; so that it is apparent that something more is required to become exempted than the mere fact of being entitled to exemption. The power to exempt or excuse is, by the act, lodged in the local and district boards, and their method of procedure is, by the terms of the act itself, to be according to rules and regulations made by the President. Under the rules and regulations so made (rule XXVTI):
“If neither ihe registrant nor any person in respect of him has claimed deferred classification, he shall forthwith be classified in class 1, unless he is an alien enemy.”
The regulations further provide (note to above rule):
“No alien (not an alien enemy) who has not declared his intention to become a citizen, of the United States shall be placed in any class oilier than class V unless such nondeclarant has stated, in answer to question No. 2 of series No. VII of bis questionnaire, that he does not claim exemption on the ground of his alienage.”
Construing the act and these regulations, the courts have uniformly held that all persons, save enemy aliens, within the draft age, are subject to the draft, unless exempted or excused therefrom by the local *178or district board, and that the action of these boards, where there has been a fair hearing, is final, and not subject to review by the courts, either on habeas corpus or certiorari. The petitioner having waived his claim for exemption before the only tribunal empowered to act upon it, and such tribunal having accorded him a fair hearing, and classified him strictly in accordance with the terms of the act and the regulations made by the President by virtue of the authority conferred upon him, this court is not only without power, but also without inclination to interfere.
The demurrer to the petition will therefore be sustained, and the petition denied.
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