Clay v. United States

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Clay v. United States
F.2d 165
(5th Cir. 1970).
Holding
Since the Appeal Board gave no reason for the denial of a conscientious objector exemption to petitioner, and it is impossible to determine on which of the three grounds offered in the Justice Department's letter that board relied, petitioner's conviction must be reversed.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Warren E. Burger
Associate Justices
John M. Harlan II · William J. Brennan Jr.
Potter Stewart · Byron White
Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun
Case opinions
Per curiam
ConcurrenceDouglas
ConcurrenceHarlan (in result)
Marshall took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Clay v. United States, 403 U.S. 698 (1971), was

U.S. Department of Justice official), the United States Supreme Court reversed the conviction that had been upheld by the Fifth Circuit
.

The Supreme Court found the government had failed to properly specify why Ali's application had been denied, thereby requiring the conviction to be overturned: "the court said the record shows that [Ali's] beliefs are founded on tenets of the Muslim religion as he understands them."[2][3][4]

Background

In 1964, Ali failed the

Viet Cong." and "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?"[8][9][10]

Ali appealed his local (Louisville, Kentucky) draft board's rejection of his application for conscientious objector classification.[11] The Justice Department, in response to the State Appeal Board's referral for an advisory recommendation, concluded, contrary to a hearing officer's recommendation, that Ali's claim should be denied, and that Ali did not meet any of the three basic tests for conscientious objector status. The Appeal Board then denied Ali's claim, but without stating its reasons.

External videos
video icon Conversation with Muhammad Ali, includes transcript, July 7, 1968, 28:55, American Archive of Public Broadcasting[12]

In early 1967, Ali changed his legal residence to Houston, Texas,[13][14] where his appeal to be reclassified as a Muslim minister was denied 4–0 on February 20.[15] He appeared for his scheduled induction into the U.S. Armed Forces in Houston on April 28. As expected, he refused three times to step forward at the call of his name. An officer warned him he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more, Ali refused to budge when his name was called. As a result, on that same day, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and the World Boxing Association stripped him of his title.[16][17] Other boxing commissions followed suit. He was indicted by a federal grand jury on May 8[18] and convicted in Houston on June 20 of the criminal offence of violating the Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted.[19][20] The trial jury was composed of six men and six women, all of whom were white.[21] The Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction and denied an appeal on May 6, 1968.[22][23]

In the U.S. Supreme Court, the government conceded the invalidity of two of the grounds for denial of Ali's claim given in its letter to the appeal board, but argued that there was factual support for the third ground.

Opinion of the Court

The Supreme Court decision was handed down on June 28, 1971. The Supreme Court held that, since the appeal board gave no reason for the denial of a conscientious objector exemption to petitioner, and it was impossible to determine on which of the three grounds offered in the Justice Department's letter that board relied, Ali's conviction must be reversed. The Eugene Register-Guard, reporting on the Court's record, cited "...the boxer's beliefs 'are surely no less religiously based' than those in previous cases."[3][4][24] The Court incorporated Welsh v. United States, in which the Court had ruled that "moral and ethical objection to war was as valid as religious objection, thus broadening the qualifications."[25]

U.S. Solicitor General when the case began,[citation needed] and the remaining eight justices initially voted 5 to 3 to uphold Ali's conviction. However, Justice John Marshall Harlan II, assigned to write the majority opinion, became convinced that Ali's claim to be a conscientious objector was sincere after reading background material on Black Muslim doctrine provided by one of his law clerks. Justice Harlan concluded that the claim by the Justice Department had been a misrepresentation. Harlan changed his vote, tying the vote at 4 to 4. A deadlock would have resulted in Ali being jailed for draft evasion and, since no opinions are published for deadlocked decisions, he would have never known why he had lost. A compromise was proposed by Justice Potter Stewart, in which Ali's conviction would be reversed, citing a technical error by the Justice Department. This gradually won unanimous assent from the eight voting justices, all of whom, with Justice Marshall's recusal, were white.[26]

See also

References

  1. ^ The petitioner changed his name to "Muhammad Ali" for religious reasons. "Cassius Clay" was his birth name and that was the name under which he was called for induction and later prosecuted.
  2. ^ Clay v. United States, 403 U.S. 698, 703 (1971).
  3. ^ a b "Court clears Ali of charge". Eugene Register-Guard. Associated Press. June 28, 1971. p. 1.
  4. ^ a b "Ali's draft-evasion conviction overturned". Palm Beach Post. June 29, 1971. p. A1.
  5. ^ "Clay may be put into 1-A class today". Lodi News-Sentinel. UPI. February 10, 1967. p. 13.
  6. ^ "Cassius Clay facing early draft call". Gettysburg Times. Associated Press. February 17, 1966. p. 5.
  7. ^ "Champ now in 1-A class". Milwaukee Journal. Associated Press. February 18, 1966. p. 14.
  8. ^ ""The Greatest" Is Gone". Time. 1978-02-27. p. 5. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-04.
  9. ^ "This Week in Black History". Jet. 1994-05-02. Archived from the original on 2007-12-10. Retrieved 2007-08-04.
  10. ^ "Muhammad Ali explains his refusal to fight in Vietnam (1967)". alphahistory.com. 12 November 2012. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  11. ^ "Clay may take draft case to nation's highest court". Spokane Daily Chronicle. Associated Press. January 11, 1967. p. 33.
  12. ^ "Conversation with Muhammad Ali". WGBH, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (WGBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. July 7, 1968. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
  13. ^ "Clay tries new route to stay out of army". Bonham Daily Favorite. UPI. February 1, 1967. p. 6.
  14. ^ "Clay induction delayed again; up to Houston". Milwaukee Sentinel. UPI. March 28, 1967. p. 1–part 2.
  15. ^ "Ali staggers at new blow". Lewiston Daily Sun. Associated Press. February 21, 1967. p. 16.
  16. ^ Lipsyte, Robert (April 29, 1967). "Clay refuses to heed draft call; is stripped of world boxing title". The Telegraph. Nashua, NH. (New York Times). p. 1.
  17. ^ "Clay won't take draft oath, faces U.S. legal action". Toledo Blace. Associated Press. April 29, 1967. p. 1.
  18. ^ "Grand jury indicts Cassius Clay". Spartanburg Herald. Associated Press. May 9, 1967. p. 10.
  19. ^ "Clay handed conviction in draft case". Toledo Blade. Associated Press. June 21, 1967. p. 1.
  20. ^ "Clay lawyers still confident". Associated Press. June 21, 1967. p. 60.
  21. ^ Waldron, Martin (June 20, 1967). "Clay Guilty in Draft Case; Gets Five Years in Prison". The New York Times. p. 1. The jury, six men and six women, all white, stayed in the jury box during the sentencing
  22. ^ Clay v. United States, 397 F.2d 901 (5th Cir. 1968).
  23. ^ "Clay loses appeal in US Court". Milwaukee Sentinel. UPI. May 7, 1968. p. 1–part 2.
  24. ^ "Ali 'figured' Court would clear him". Milwaukee Sentinel. UPI. June 29, 1971. p. 1–part 2.
  25. ^ REGALADO, SAMUEL (2007). "Clay, aka Ali v. United States (1971): Muhammad Ali, Precedent, and the Burger Court" (PDF). JOURNAL OF SPORT HISTORY. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  26. ISBN 978-0-380-52183-8
    .

External links
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