Graduate Student Argued Own Case; Beat Army in Supreme Court Test

Unbelievable though it may seem, Arthur G. Billings 4G, without the benefit of legal training, briefed, pleaded and won in the United States Supreme Court the only case the Army lost during the war.

The unusual and the ironical, however, are the rule rather than the exception in the life of Billings, who is now prosaically working on his Economics doctorate.

Billings graduated from the University of Kansas in 1933 and then took up courses in foreign studies and the Russian language in Paris. After spending three years on the staff of the American Embassy in Moscow working under Ambassador William C. Bullitt, he enrolled at Harvard. Following receipt of his Master's in 1941, Billings joined the faculty of Texas University, where he started on a path which led to the Supreme Court.

While at Texas the issue of his draft classification arose. Billings had registered as a conscientious objector. The state hearing officer of the Department of Justice recommended that he be classified as such, although Billings was an avowed agnostic.

The draft authorities were not bound to follow the recommendation, however, and instead ordered him up for a final physical examination and induction into the Army if he passed. In hopes that he would be rejected because of his poor eyesight and thus avoid imprisonment, he reported for his physical. If he were accepted, he planned to refuse to submit to induction and then turn himself over to civil authorities.

Found fit for limited service, Billings told the Army officials his intentions and was promptly arrested and informed that they would induct him forcibly by simply reading the oath in his presentce. After hearing. "Do you, Arthur Goodwyn Billings, solemnly swear" and so on, he replied emphatically. "I do not, I refuse to take this oath." An officer reported. "That doesn't make any difference, you're in the Army now.

The officer then read an article of war which stated that refusal to obey the command of a superior would bring "death or such other penalty as a court-martial may direct. Billings was told by the officer in charge, "Private Billings, I hereby give you a direct order to affix your fingerprints to this record of your induction." He refused, was taken off to the guardhouse, and held for courtmartial.

In protest to this action, Billings decided to apply for a writ of habeas corpus. His efforts were unsuccessful.

A captain at the fort, realizing his plight, got copies of the briefs, which the lawyers had never even shown Billings. Finding the Army's case "shot full of holes," he decided to apply for a writ of certiorari that would bring the situation before the United States Supreme Court.

Although having no previous legal experience, he had no choice but to handle the case himself; he began immediately to prepare his brief in an old Leaven-worth ledger book that he had found in a trash can. While still in the guard-house. Billings corresponded with his old chief, William C. Bullitt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

Finally he received permission to plead his case before the Supreme Court. Representing the other side was a well-balanced roster of legal talent that included Thomas C. Clark (then Assistant to the Attorney General), Solicitor General Charles C. Fahy, an Army major-general, and three Department of Justice attorneys. Nevertheless, Billings won the decision, the Supreme Court forcing the Army to turn him over to civil courts.

The name of the case was Billings v. Truesdell.

Released from the Fort Leavenworth guardhouse after his two year stay, he was brought before a U.S. Court and sentenced to two years in a federal penitentiary. Eight months later he was parolled.

At present, Billings is preparing a doctor's thesis, consisting of a critical history of Austrian economy, at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. His plans for the future are indefinite.

He would like to return to foreign service, but feels that such an appointment is unlikely. Although his Supreme Court brief makes evident his antipathy to both the Nazi and Soviet systems, Billings reports that the State Department, at present under harrassment from certain members of the Senate, would probably hesitate to appoint a man with his background.

On Russia, a subject he is well qualified to discuss, he said. "The Soviets would make as good guardians for civil liberties as wolves for sheep." As for his own country, Billings thinks that his very story is a "tribute to the fundamental decency and democracy of the United States."