Anyone see the PBS special on “Ali in Miami”? Excellent program on Ali’s early years as contender and champ. But while they covered his fight with the Selective Service System, they didn’t mention the denouement: an historic Supreme Court Decision. I followed it closely in those days:

Potential draftees were called for a “pre-induction examination to determine if you are fit for service.” It consisted of a physical and an intelligence test. Ali flunked the latter. “I always said I was the greatest…I never said I was the smartest,” he quipped. But Uncle Sam had a hardon for Ali because of his “uppity” attitude and his membership in the dreaded Nation of Islam. So the Selective Service System arbitrarily lowered the intelligence test standards. They said it was because they needed more draftees to fight in Vietnam. The real reason was to button the Louisville Lip. Ali was suddenly reclassified 1A—“fit for service at this time.” He then tried to get an exemption as a “Muslim minister,” but his draft board turned him down.

Ali was one of millions of young men who resisted being drafted to fight in Vietnam. “I ain’t got no quarrel with the Viet Cong,” Ali said. “No Viet Cong ever called me n****r.” He complied with every request from his draft board, filed appeals through each and every means available. He even showed up for his induction to the Armed Forces and submitted to another physical. He broke the law only at the very last stage: he refused to repeat an oath to “obey all lawful orders of the United States, and to “take the step forward” that constituted that he accepted being drafted. As soon as he did, the boxing authorities (which had no problems licensing Mob-controlled, ex-con thugs like Sonny Liston) stripped him of his title.

He was later indicted, tried and convicted of violating the Selective Service Act. Plenty of other resisters got off with suspended or light sentences. The judge hit Ali with the max: five years in prison and a $10k fine. Ali appealed all the way to the Supreme Court—appeals took all his millions at a time when he couldn’t box because no commission would license him. Finally the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Ali’s favor. Though it’s most often overlooked, the Supreme decision was a landmark in the Civil Rights era:

Ali was registered with a draft board in an all-black neighborhood in Houston. But all the members of his local draft board were white. While the Court stopped short of saying that the board should have approved his application for exemption as a minister of the Nation of Islam, the justices said that the all-white board in the all-black neighborhood wasn’t capable of understanding a Black Muslim ministry, or considering Ali’s application without prejudice. They also ruled that, from then or, all local draft boards had to reflect the ethnic/religious composition of the neighborhoods or towns they served.

This was a very significant step forward by the Supreme Court. Although local draft board members were civilian political appointees, they were rubber stamps for the Selective Service System, which used the draft to silence and punish dissenters during the Vietnam War. Also, Selective Service rules applied military standards of justice to civilians who were draft-eligible. Lower courts were loath to find in favor of defendants who ran afoul of draft laws because they thought they’d create a Constitutional crisis. The high court ruling in the Ali case introduced some much-needed civilian accountability into the Selective Service System. Thank you, Ali!