Wiley Blount Rutledge

“ The person classified as conscientious objector is never confronted with that choice. He is relived by the Act from any duty to perform military service. He is not threatend with induction. He is in fact farther removed from military status or jurisdiction after he is finally assigned to civilian public service of national importance, and for this reason is rejected for military service, than he was before that time. ”

“ There is in fact no change in 'jurisdiction' whatsoever, except in the sense that from the time he becomes a camp member the registrant's duties are different and his orders come through different channels of the same agency.
Unlike the man 'actually inducted,' the person classified IV E remains a civilian; his duties are not military in character; he is not subject to military discipline or authority ”

“ The selectee may still be rejected at the induction center and the conscientious objector who is opposed to noncombatant duty may be rejected at the civilian public service camp. The connected series of steps into the national service which begins with registration with the local board does not end until the registrant is accepted by the army, navy or civilian public service camp. Thus a board order to report is no more than a necessary intermediate step in a united and continuous process designed to raise an army speedily and efficiently.' 320 U.S. at page 553, 64 S.Ct. ”

“ Since the Act and the regulations laid upon camp members a duty to remain and perform the further duties prescribed for them, [25] Gibson's departure without leave amounted to desertion; his defense of wrongful classification is no more open to him than a defense of illegal induction would be open to a wrongfully inducted soldier violating a military order; and his remedy, if any, is to apply for release from the camp through habeas corpus. ”

“ When the assignee has reported to camp, the camp director shall complete the Order to Report for Work of National Importance (Form 50) . Four copies of the completed Order to Report for Work of National Importance (Form 50) shall be sent to the Director of Selective Service; one copy will be retained by the camp director. ”

“ The facts would sustain no implication of intention to submit to 'induction' or to surrender any rights.↑ It is Gibson's position that had he not gone to the civilian public service camp and subjected himself to the physical examination given by the camp physician, see note 29, the courts might subsequently have held that in a prosecution under § 11 he was foreclosed by the Falbo doctrine from making the defense that his classification was illegal. ”

“ Nothing in the section or the statute, in the light of our prior decisions, can be taken to indicate that Congress intended persons charged with violating such duties to be deprived of their rights of defense on the ground of invalid classification, either absolutely should haveas corpus prove unavailable or contingently depending upon how the doubt concerning that remedy's availability might be resolved. ”

“ These cases carry forward another step the sequence in decision represented by Falbo, Billings, Estep and Smith. [1] Each petitioner has been convicted for violating § 11 of the Selective Training and Service Act, 54 Stat. 894, 50 U.S.C.App. § 311, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 311, Dodez for failing to report for work of national importance after being ordered to do so and Gibson for having unlawfully deserted the camp to which he had been assigned for such work. ”

“ To take this step, it says, is equivalent to the oath in the induction ceremony prescribed for men entering the armed forces, cf. Billings v. Truesdell, supra; and produces the same consequences for foreclosing the defense of illegal classification, regardless of intention to submit to the camp's jurisdiction, indeed in spite of Gibson's unwavering manifestation of intention not to submit. ”

“ The reasons underlying those rulings do not apply in the case of one who does not undergo that change, remains at all times a civilian, subject only to civilian duties and to civil penalties for violating them. ”

“ On the other hand, Gibson argues that until the preliminaries to actual service, including physical examination, were completed at the camp, he was not foreclosed by going through with them from exercising his choice not to submit to the camp's jurisdiction, cf. Billings v. Truesdell, 321 U.S. 542, 64 S.Ct. 737, 88 L.Ed. 917, or, upon doing so, from asserting the invalidity of his classification in a criminal trial either for failing to report for service or for desertion from the camp, Cf. Estep v. ”