Petitioner registered with Local Board No. 9, Boulder, Colorado, on March 17, 1952. His answers to the classification questionnaire reflected that he was a minister of Jehovah's Witnesses, employed at night by a sugar producer. He claimed 4, - D classification as a minister of religion, devoting a minimum of 100 hours a month to preaching. On November 13, 1952, he was classified in Class 1, - A. On November 22, 1952, he wrote the Board, protesting this classification. He again stated that he was ``a regular minister''; that he was ``devoting an average of 100 hours a month to actual preaching publicly,'' in addition to 50 to 75 hours in other ministerial duties, and that he opposed war in any form. Thereafter he was classified 1, - O. On April 1, 1953, after some six months of full-time ``pioneering,'' petitioner discontinued devoting 100 hours a month to preaching, but failed to so notify his local board. In a periodic review, the local board on July 30, 1953, reclassified him 1, - A and upheld this classification after a personal appearance by petitioner, because of his willingness to kill in defense of his church and home. Upon administrative approval of the reclassification, he was ordered to report for induction on June 11, 1956, but failed to do so. He was not prosecuted, however, and his case was subsequently reopened, in the light of Sicurella v. United States, 348 U. S. 385 (1955). He was again reclassified 1, - A by the local board. There followed a customary Department of Justice hearing, at which petitioner appeared. In his report to the Attorney General, the hearing officer suggested that the petitioner be exempt only from combatant training and service. On March 21, 1957, however, the Department recommended approval of the 1, - A classification. Its ground for this recommendation was that, while petitioner claimed before the local board August 17, 1956 (as evidenced by its memorandum in his file of that date), that he was devoting 100 hours per month to actual preaching, the headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses reported that he was no longer doing so and, on the contrary, had relinquished both his Pioneer and Bible Student Servant positions. It reported that he now devoted only some 6 -- 1 2 hours per month to public preaching and from 20 to 25 hours per month to church activities. His claim was therefore ``so highly exaggerated,'' the Department concluded, that it ``cast doubt upon his veracity and, consequently, upon his sincerity and good faith.'' The appeal board furnished petitioner a copy of the recommendation. In his answer thereto, he advised the Board that he had made no such statement in 1956, and asserted that his only claim to ``pioneering'' was in 1952. The appeal board, however, unanimously concurred in the Department's recommendation. Upon return of the file to the local board, petitioner was again ordered to report for induction and this prosecution followed his failure to do so.