Constitutional Law - Self-Incrimination - Relation to Loyalty Discharge from Government Service

Authors

George E. Ewing, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

A doctor, drafted into the Army as a private by authority of the Doctors Draft Law, exercised his constitutional privilege against self-incrimination in refusing to complete a loyalty certificate required for a military commission. The Army refused to grant the commission. In a prior habeas corpus proceeding, he had been ordered discharged unless granted the commission. Since the Army intended to grant the discharge under conditions other than honorable, the doctor sought an injunction to compel prompt honorable discharge. Held, injunction granted. Exercise of the constitutional privilege in refusing to complete a loyalty certificate could not be considered a confession of guilt of subversive association or activities, and, in absence of other grounds, the doctor was entitled to an honorable discharge. Levin v. Gillespie, (D. C. Cal. 1954) 121 F. Supp. 726.

Recommended Citation

George E. Ewing, Constitutional Law - Self-Incrimination - Relation to Loyalty Discharge from Government Service, 53 Mich. L. Rev. 470 (1955).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol53/iss3/9