Harlan Backs Army Board's Lubell Probe

Supreme Court Justice John M. Harlan yesterday refused to halt Army proceedings which David and Jonathan Lubell LL.B. '54 and six other Fort Dix soldiers said could result in dishonorable discharges for them. Harlan announced no opinion with his ruling.

The Army had ordered the eight to appear before a field board to show "why they should be kept in the Army." They contended that the Army was preparing to give them dishonorable discharges for "preinduction civilian activities."

After Harlan's decision, Stanley Faulkner, counsel for the soldiers announced in New York that he had requested District Judge David N. Edelstein for a summary judgment on the legality of the Army rules under which the eight might be discharged.

Army Criticized

Such moving for a summary judgment, Faulkner explained last night, is a legal maneuver to avoid the delays of a trial. In such motions, Faulkner said, one party to a case contends there are no factual issues, only legal ones, and that these can easily be decided in its favor without a trial.

Faulkner added that servicemen who, like the Lubells, have refused to tell the Army about past left-wing activities are in an ambiguous position before the courts. Federal District Judges have criticized the Army's policy of trying to discharge servicemen with past left-wing associations, he said.

Two Federal Judges have refused however, to overrule the decisions of Army field boards, he added. In the Lubell case, Judge Edelstein declined to interfere before the board hearings are held, he said, on the grounds that the soldiers had not yet suffered any injury.