United States v. Seeger case brief

United States v. Seeger case brief summary

380 U.S. 163 (1965)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Certiorari was issued to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to determine the meaning of the term "Supreme Being" as used in the Universal Military Training and Service Act, 50 U.S.C.S. § 456(j) and to determine whether the objectors in three consolidated cases qualified for conscientious objector status.

CASE FACTS
The court considered three consolidated cases involving claims of conscientious objectors under the Universal Military Training and Service Act, 50 U.S.C.S. § 456(j), which raised the basic question of the constitutionality of the section that defined the term "religious training and belief," as used in the Act, as an individual's belief in a relation to a Supreme Being involving duties superior to those arising from any human relation, but not including essentially political, sociological, or philosophical views or a merely personal moral code.

DISCUSSION

• The court held that the term "Supreme Being" as used in § 6(j) meant the concept of a power or being, or a faith, to which all else is subordinate or upon which all else is ultimately dependent. 
• The court based its holding on what it found to be the congressional intent regarding the act, and established a test stated in these words: 
• A sincere and meaningful belief that occupied in the life of its possessor a place parallel to that filled by the God of those admittedly qualifying for the exemption comes within the statutory definition. 
• The court concluded that each of the cases at bar satisfied this test for conscientious objector status.

CONCLUSION

The court held that each of the objectors in the cases at bar satisfied the test of belief in a relation to a "Supreme Being," and thereby qualified for conscientious objector status under the Universal Military Training and Service Act.