Patterson, Secretary of War, et al. v. Lamb (329 U.S. 539)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 20, 1947 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 329 U.S. 539 · 67 S. Ct. 448
- Decided
- January 20, 1947
- Term
- October Term 1946
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Black
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. On October 28, 1944, respondent brought this action in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the then Secretary of War and Adjutant General of the Army. He prayed for a judgment declaring that he had served in the United States Army from November 11, 1918 (Armistice Day) until November 14, 1918, and that for this service he was entitled to a certificate of honorable discharge from the Army, instead of the certificate of “Discharge from Draft” which had been issued to him. He also prayed for a mandatory injunction to compel issuance to him of a certificate of honorable discharge from the Army. The complainant alleged that on November 9, 1918, he received a communication from his local draft board directing him to report to the board at Davenport, Iowa, for “immediate military service” at 9 a. m., November 11, 1918, and stating that from that day and hour he would be “a soldier in the military service of the United States”; that he reported as ordered, and was made the leader of the drafted group there assembled which was to board a train that day for a mobilization camp at Camp Dodge, Iowa; that during the day he was told that because of the Armistice the draft call had been canceled; that he and the other draftees would not go to Camp Dodge, but could return home, still soldiers, and await…
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