Judge Dismisses Anti-Hershey Suit

Federal Judge George Hart ruled Thursday that he was powerless to act on a suit challenging the constitutionality of a letter sent last fall to the nation's local draft boards by Selective Service System Director Gen. Lewis B. Hershey.

The suit had charged that the directive, which recommended that participants in illegal anti-draft protests be reclassified 1-A, was a violation of the right of freedom of speech.

The suit was filed jointly by the National Student Association, Students for a Democratic Society, Campus Americans for Democratic Action, and fifteen student council presidents.

The groups involved plan an immediate appeal to the United States Court of Appeals, according to their attorney, Melvin L. Wulf.

Commenting on the decision, N.S.A. president Ed Schwartz said that the judge had contradicted himself by refusing jurisdiction while passing a summary judgment on the facts of the case. Judge Hart had ruled that the Hershey letter "had no legal effect whatsoever."

Secret Memorandum

Schwartz said yesterday, "the letter is unconstitutional and is in fact a secret memorandum sent to the selective service boards." To say that the letter is not an official directive, he continued, is to say that Gen. Hershey has no power over the selective system. This, Schwartz maintained, is absurd.

Schwartz said that the sponsors of the suit intend to appeal all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.