History for Chron

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the government’s right to order reservists to active duty in an “undeclared war” such as the conflict in Vietnam.

The case was brought by 57 U.S. Army reservists who argued that they were told during enlistment that they would not be called to active duty “in the absence of a war declared by Congress … or the President.”

The decision by the full court brought a vigorous dissent from Justice William O. Douglas.

“There should be not the slightest doubt,” Douglas wrote, “but that whenever the chief executive of the country takes any citizen by the neck and either puts him in prison or subjects him to the same ordeal or sends him overseas to fight in a war, the question is a judiciable one.”

Government attorneys argued that current law allows the president to order any unit of the ready reserve of the armed forces to active duty for up to 24 months.