Biography
Former Yale philosophy student from Pasadena who wrote letters to government officials publicly announcing his refusal to register; the letters were placed in a Selective Service file used by DOJ to select "vocal" nonregistrants for prosecution. Indicted July 22, 1982. U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter dismissed the indictment on selective-prosecution grounds; the Supreme Court reversed in Wayte v. United States, 470 U.S. 598 (1985), 7-2, holding that DOJ's selective prosecution did not violate the First or Fifth Amendments. Wayte then pleaded guilty in June 1985 and Hatter sentenced him on Sept. 10, 1985 to six months under house arrest at his grandmother's home — far below the 5-year statutory maximum.
