United States v. Seeger

United States v. Seeger, 380 U.S. 163 (1965), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that the exemption from the military draft for conscientious objectors could not be reserved only for those professing conformity with the moral directives of a supreme being, but also for those whose views on war derived from a "sincere and meaningful belief which occupies in the life of its possessor a place parallel to that filled by the God of those" who had routinely gotten the exemption.[1]

This is about pacifism-related case that involved Daniel Seeger; for the First-Amendment- and HUAC-related case Seeger v. United States, see Pete Seeger.
United States v. Seeger
Argued November 16–17, 1964
Decided March 8, 1965
Full case nameUnited States v. Daniel Andrew Seeger;
United States v. Arno Sascha Jakobson;
Forest Britt Peter v. United States
Citations380 U.S. 163 (more)
85 S. Ct. 850; 13 L. Ed. 2d 733; 1965 U.S. LEXIS 1666
Case history
Prior
  • United States v. Seeger, 216 F. Supp. 516 (S.D.N.Y. 1963); reversed, 326 F.2d 846 (2d Cir. 1964); cert. granted, 377 U.S. 922 (1964).
  • United States v. Jakobson, 325 F.2d 409 (2d Cir. 1963); cert. granted, 377 U.S. 922 (1964).
  • Peter v. United States, 324 F.2d 173 (9th Cir. 1963); cert. granted, 377 U.S. 922 (1964).
Court membership
Chief Justice
Earl Warren
Associate Justices
Hugo Black · William O. Douglas
Tom C. Clark · John M. Harlan II
William J. Brennan Jr. · Potter Stewart
Byron White · Arthur Goldberg
Case opinions
MajorityClark, joined by Warren, Black, Harlan, Brennan, Stewart, White, Goldberg
ConcurrenceDouglas

The case resolved, on diverse but related grounds, three cases, each involving conviction for failure to accept induction into the armed forces on the part of someone who sought conscientious objector status without "belong[ing] to an orthodox religious sect". The accused, whose cases were otherwise unrelated, were Arno Sascha Jakobson, Forest Britt Peter, and Daniel Andrew Seeger; it was Seeger's case that gave its name to the multi-case decision.

See also

References
  1. United States v. Seeger, 380 U.S. 163 (1965).

Further reading
  • In stillness there is fullness: a peacemaker's harvest: essays and reflections in honor of Daniel A. Seeger's four decades of Quaker service; edited by Peter Bien and Chuck Fager, Belfonte, Pennsylvania, Kimo Press, ISBN 978-0-945177-17-3. This festschrift includes:
    • "Excerpts from and comments on a Thesis called 'The challenge to the Supreme Court of the case United States v. Seeger'" by Margery W. Rubin
    • "The Seeger decision" by L. William Yolton
    • "The Supreme Court decision"
  • Alley, Robert S. (1999). The Constitution & Religion: Leading Supreme Court Cases on Church and State. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. pp. 454–465. ISBN 1-57392-703-1.
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