Michael B. Shaffer v. Hon. James R. Schlesinger, Secretary of Defense’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 federal appellate · 2 district ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “* * # # * * “To qualify for a discharge from the armed forces as a conscientious objector, an applicant must establish that he is opposed to participation to war in any form; that his opposition to war is rooted in “religious training and beliefs” as defined in Welsh v. United States, 398 U.S. 333 [ 90 S.Ct. 1792 , 26 L.Ed.2d 308 ] (1970) and in United States v. Seeger, 380 U.S. 163 [ 85 S.Ct. 850 , 13 L.Ed.2d 733 ] (1965); that his beliefs are sincerely held; and that his beliefs did not become fixed until after entry into service.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Reiser v. Stone

2. “[h]is views evolved and congealed over a period of years and it would be illogical and indeed inconsistent with [the regulation permitting in-service conscientious objector applications] to hold that because he once voluntarily participated in the military, he could not thereafter sincerely assert conscientious objector beliefs.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hager v. Secretary of the Air Force

3. “The Board must show some hard, reliable, provable, facts which would provide a basis for disbelieving the applicant’s sincerity, or it must show something concrete in the record which substantially blurs the picture painted by the applicant---- A mere suspicion or surmise as to an applicant’s motivation is not a basis in fact.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Goodrich v. Marsh