Cox v. United States (332 U.S. 442)/Dissent Douglas

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, with whom Mr. Justice BLACK concurs, dissenting.

I agree with the majority of the Court that we can reverse the judgments below only if there was no basis in fact for the classification. I also agree that that question is properly one of law for the Court. To that extent I join in the opinion of the Court. But I do not agree that the local boards had adequate basis to deny to petitioners the classification of ministers. My disagreement is required by what I conceive to be the mandate of Congress, that all who preach and teach their faith and are recognized as ministers within their religious group are entitled to the statutory exemption.

The exemption runs to 'regular or duly ordained ministers of religion.' There is no suggestion that only ministers of the more orthodox or conventional faiths are included. Nor did Congress make the availability of the exemption turn on the amount of time devoted to religious activity. It exempted all regular or duly ordained ministers. Hence, I think the Selective Service Regulations properly required that a 'regular' minister, as distinguished from a 'duly ordained' minister, only be one who 'customarily preaches and teaches the principles of religion of a recognized church, religious sect, or religious organization of which he is a member, without having been formally ordained as a minister of religion; and who is recognized by such church, sect or organization as a minister.' 32 C.F.R., Cum.Supp. § 622.44(b).

It is not disputed that Jehovah's Witnesses constitute a religious sect or organization. We have, moreover, recognized that its door-to-door evangelism is as much religious activity as 'worship in the churches and preaching from the pulpits.' Murdock v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 319 U.S. 105, 109, 63 S.Ct. 870, 873, 87 L.Ed. 1292, 146 A.L.R. 81. The Selective Service files of these petitioners establish, I think, their status as ministers of that sect. Their claims to that status are supported by affidavits of their immediate superiors in the local group and by their national headquarters. And each of them was spending substantial time in the religious activity of preaching their faith. If a person is in fact engaging in the ministry, his motives for doing so are quite immaterial.

To deny these claimants their statutory exemption is to disregard these facts or to adopt a definition of minister which contracts the classification provided by Congress.

The classification as a minister may not be denied because the registrant devotes but a part of his time to religious activity. It is not uncommon for ordained ministers of more orthodox religions to work a full day in secular occupations, especially in rural communities. They are nonetheless by the hours devoted to their parish but by their position as teachers of their faith. It should be no different when a religious organization such as Jehovah's Witnesses has part-time ministers. Financial needs may require that they devote a substantial portion of their time to lay occupations. And the use of part-time ministers may be dictated by a desire to disseminate more widely the religious views of the sect. Whatever the reason, these part-time ministers are vehicles for propagation of the faith; by practical as well as historical standards they are the apostles who perform the minister's function for this group.