A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit refused Friday to reconsider a ruling that the U.S. Army had no valid reason for denying a doctor’s request for discharge as a conscientious objector.

By a vote of 5-4, the Second Circuit refused to rehear en banc a June decision by a three-judge panel upholding a grant of habeas corpus to Dr. Timothy Watson, who accepted an Army scholarship but later said a change of heart should excuse him from his three-year service obligation.