Watson v. Geren, No. 07-2563

District court judgment granting plaintiff's petition for a writ of habeas corpus in a case involving an application for discharge as a conscientious objector is affirmed where: 1) in the event that Department of the Army Conscientious Objector Review Board does not provide an adequate statement of the reasons for its denial of a conscientious objector application, a district court must remand to the Army for a statement of reasons unless such remand would be utterly futile; and 2) the record contains no basis in fact to support the denial of plaintiff's application for discharge as a conscientious objector and thus remand to the DACORB for an adequate statement of reasons would be futile. 

Read Watson v. Geren, No. 07-2563

Appellate Information
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Argued: April 22, 2009
Decided: June 25, 2009

Judges
Before MCLAUGHLIN, CALABRESI, and KATZMANN, Circuit Judges.
Opinion by KATZMANN, Circuit Judge.

Counsel
For Petitioner: Raymond J. Toney, New York, NY.

For Respondent: Joshua Waldman, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC.