Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight Page #8

"to all wars

on religious grounds.

"And I am now convinced

the conviction

should be reversed. "

My God!

The vote's a tie.

John Harlan has

become an apologist

for the Black Muslims.

John Harlan is

one of the few people

who could convince me

that there is such a thing

as a good Republican.

John?

4-4.

Ah, Chief.

John,

you have betrayed me.

These are your last

days on the court.

What on Earth

has taken hold of you?

It's Bill Brennan,

isn't it?

He's the one who's

been twisting your arm.

Twisting my arm?

Really?

Don't you

patronize me, John.

Oh, come on in, Warren, and sit

down, for God's sake. Come on.

Sit, sit.

Don't think

I'm not sensitive

to how you judge me

sometimes, John.

Now, come on, Warren.

Now you're making it

a little too personal.

No, I'm not.

I count on you,

I depend on you.

As my colleague,

as my friend.

We have

the same values.

We're both working hard

toward a united Court.

Yes, well,

it occurs to me that

sometimes we,

we're inclined

to slide around

the issues

when we wish to achieve

certain results.

That's the way

it's done, John.

I am the Chief Justice

of the Supreme Court

of the United States.

It's my role.

I think it's time

we left

politics to Congress,

don't you?

Please.

You're being so naive.

Apart from this place,

do you have any sense

of what goes on

in the real world?

I know exactly what

goes on in the real world.

All the more reason

to protect

the independence

of the court.

So naive.

John, I don't understand

why you're doing this.

Why? You're

just about to retire.

Because this Court

is a continuing body.

It acknowledges

the Constitution,

the problems

of the day,

and tries to reconcile

the two,

and by God

I respect that!

Oh, please.

The vote is tied,

4 to 4,

and it's not as if it's

going to

change anything.

And I can assure you

that I am not

going to shift

my position,

and no one on the Court

will either.

How the hell

can you be so sure?

It's wilful, John.

Do you hear me?

It's wilful.

And what's the result?

You're not going

to get another vote.

Ali will still

go to jail.

You've accomplished

nothing.

Ooh! Ooh.

Ahh.

Uhh.

Ahh.

Everything

all right, sir?

Mm. Yes.

Uh, get me

Potter Stewart, will you?

Right away, sir.

Petrus, the position

I've taken on the Ali case

has absolutely nothing to do

with his being a Negro.

I hope you understand that.

Yes, sir.

It's about the law.

Mrs. Paige.

Yes?

Um, it's about

the Justice.

What about

the Justice?

Is he sick?

I mean, I know he has

back problems, but

is it something

more serious than that?

He has cancer,

Mr. Connolly.

He's a very

private man.

I would ask you

to respect that.

Yes, ma'am.

Well, we are 4.

Thurgood has

recused himself.

Where is our fifth

coming from?

Chaps, it's not enough

to get the fifth vote.

In this case, the Court

will have to be perceived

as having one voice.

The vote

must be unanimous.

8-0?

8-0.

Against

the government?

Jesus, John. The last time around,

you were trying to get

us to back the Chief.

Potter?

In this situation, I think

we have to really dig deep.

Find a reason to overturn.

A reason that the others

would come aboard.

You know what this Chief

is going to say.

If the court

frees Ali,

every black American

will join

the Nation of Islam

so he doesn't have to go

and fight in Vietnam.

Now, that's what

he's going to say.

Well, got to find

a reason to reverse

without setting

a precedent.

You don't

change the law.

You make the ruling

specific to the Ali case.

Well, whatever trick

we come up with,

it's got to come from

a Republican appointee.

Me or Bill...

they'll mangle us.

John?

You OK, Harry?

I know you're

all concerned about

what you perceive as

my indecisiveness.

You think I can't

make up my mind.

It's not that.

It really isn't.

It's that the issues

in this case are so grave.

You answer one question,

even tentatively.

You think you're safe

and then

two more questions

appear on the horizon.

As I see it, I can't

make a final judgment

until all the facts

are in,

until all the arguments

have been analyzed.

But it's not

a math problem, Harry.

You want to find out

one answer.

It doesn't

work that way.

Here he is.

Sorry.

You're up.

You must be feeling

pleased with yourself.

Leave it

alone, Becker.

You crossed the line, Connolly.

Ask anybody,

no matter whose

side they're on.

John Harlan is one of the most respected

Justices in Supreme

Court history.

Chief Burger humiliating him like that

in front of

everybody-

they heard that all the

way over on Capitol Hill.

He didn't humiliate him.

He just changed his mind

and then he

stood his ground.

You know he's not

thinking straight.

Harlan did

the right thing.

It's Justice Harlan

to you, prick.

When you go home

at night,

did you

tell your wife

how you took advantage of a dying man?

You know what?

I've wanted to

punch you in the mouth

since I met you.

Put them up.

You're kidding me.

I'm not kidding.

Put them up.

Wow. Now, I'm not gonna tell you again.

You're making

a mistake here.

In college, I boxed

in the Golden-

Get off him!

Hey, break it up!

I've been troubled

by the government's case

against Ali since

the very beginning.

That's why I voted to hear

the case in the first place.

Now, last night, my guys

and I, we took a look...

What is there

to look at?

There are 3 conditions

that determine

the status of

a conscientious objector.

The Appeals Board

ruled that Ali

did not meet any of them.

But the Appeals Board

was not specific, Chief.

It did not say which

conditions it rejected.

What's your point?

Griswold challenged Ali

on only one condition.

He conceded the other two.

In fact, he said that

he found Ali to be sincere

and that his objections

were religiously based.

So, how do we know

that the one condition

that Griswold singled out

was the same one

that the Appeal Board

used to hang Ali out to dry?

We don't.

The Appeal Board said nothing.

They gave no reasons.

It's an error of the law.

We have no choice

but to overturn.

I know what

you're doing, Potter.

You're trying to hang this

on a technicality.

Yes, a technicality,

Chief, exactly.

That way we can

avoid a precedent

and we can make the ruling

specific to the Ali case.

This is

absolute nonsense.

If we do what

you're suggesting,

then a man who refuses

to fight for his country

on dubious grounds

will still go free.

His belief's a matter

of conscience, Warren.

Protected by

the First Amendment.

Byron, Hugo,

Potter, and John

are all military men,

and so are you, Bill.

Do you know

what this means?

Yes. Yes, it means there'll

be no more soldiers

left to fight

Nixon's dirty war.

That's

one way to end it.

Ha ha ha!

Well, guys, we're

losing focus here.

We're not ruling

on the war,

we don't want

to set a precedent,

we're making this case

specific to Ali.

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