United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Keegan v. United States, 325 U.S. 478 (1945)

Keegan v. United States

No. 39

Argued November 9, 10, 1944

Decided June 11, 1945*

325 U.S. 478

Syllabus

1. The evidence in this case was insufficient to sustain conviction of the petitioners, members of the German-American Bund, for conspiracy knowingly to counsel others to evade service in the armed forces of the United States, in violation of § 11 of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. Pp. 325 U. S. 488, 325 U. S. 494.

Opinion of ROBERTS, J., in which FRANKFURTER and MURPHY, JJ., concur:

2. Promulgation and communication of Bund Command No. 37 was not, in itself, a counsel to evade; evidence of the general disposition of the petitioners either towards the Government of the United States or towards the Selective Service Act did not make the Command a counsel to evade, and the evidence and oral statements of the various petitioners at committee meetings and unit meetings of the Bund did not supply the basis for a finding, beyond a reasonable doubt, of counseling, or intending to counsel, or conspiring to counsel, evasion of military service within the meaning of § 11 of the Act. P. 325 U. S. 494.

BLACK and RUTLEDGE, JJ., concur in separate opinions, pp. 325 U. S. 495, 325 U. S. 498.

141 F.2d 248, reversed.

Certiorari, 322 U.S. 719, to review a judgment affirming convictions of conspiracy in violation of § 11 of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940.

Page 325 U. S. 479