The Trials of Muhammad Ali Page #9

Legal Defense Fund,

of which he used to be the head,

was representing a party.

The fact that Marshall

was not in the case...

meant there were

only eight justices.

So there was always the risk that

this case would come out 4-4.

If the justices vote 4-4,

the decision below is affirmed.

Ali would go to jail.

Earlier this year Ali

began retempering the steel...

that lay beneath the starchy

lecture-circuit lunches.

All this is to me is a job.

It means that I have a chance to earn

a living and take care of my family.

That's all it means to me.

In exhibitions like this,

sometimes he floated

like a butterfly in galoshes.

But there were moments

when a live youth...

broke through the rusty layers.

Many critics

say it's impossible...

for a man to be off

three years and a half...

and with a six-week notice

be in shape.

It's impossible for him to have his wind,

his timing, his speed and his legs.

People are wondering

what can I do,

and we won't know

until the pressure's put on me.

A man should be

entitled to do his job.

He was convicted of a felony,

but he's not in jail.

And as long as he's free,

he should be entitled

to make his living.

Win or lose, he's got the

appeal of his conviction to worry about...

and the possibility

of five years in prison.

Time!

When the case

was argued to the justices,

almost all the analysis

turned on the question...

of whether he was a selective

conscientious objector.

That is, he had a conscientious objection

to this war but not another one.

There is in this record

a basis, in fact,

for the conclusion...

that the

petitioner's objection,

though religious, is selective.

- As-salaam alaikum.

- Wa as-salaam.

That he is,

in fact, oppose to fighting...

what he regards

as "the white man's wars,"

although having no religious

or conscientious scruples...

against participation in war...

which would defend

the black man's interests.

The court voted 5-3

against Ali.

It was all over

but the writing.

Metaphorically,

Ali had one foot and three toes in prison.

The chief justice assigned

the opinion to Justice Harlan.

Justice Harlan... he was in very good

health, with one exception.

His eyesight was horrible.

He had had something that

was like a stroke of the eyes.

Part of the job of being Justice

Harlan's law clerk was to read to him.

And I told Justice Harlan...

I might have said it more times

than is really polite...

"When you go back and you read

The Message to the Blackman... "

Every one of you should have

this book in your study.

"and you read

The Autobiography of Malcolm X,

the Nation of Islam people

were saying...

if Allah summons us to war,

then we will go to war.

If you really took the law

literally seriously,

you cannot distinguish Jehovah's

Witnesses from the Nation of Islam...

on this particular issue."

And so we've got

legal precedent.

What the Supreme Court had said

about the Jehovah's Witnesses...

was even though

they're willing to fight...

in some hypothetical war

declared by God,

it doesn't mean that you're

not a conscientious objector.

Congress meant to exempt people

who, in good conscience,

couldn't participate in a

person-to-person bombs-and-bullets war.

"We believe that we who declare

ourselves to be righteous Muslims...

shall not participate in wars which

take the lives of human beings."

Justice

Harlan sent a memorandum

essentially saying,

"Now that I've look

more carefully at the record,

I think we

were wrong in our vote,

and I am voting

to reverse the conviction."

And now we had a problem.

How are we going to keep

staffing that war machine...

if it turns out that everybody

who joins the Nation of Islam...

gets a free pass

out of the draft?

In war, the intention is

to kill, kill, kill, kill...

and continue killing innocent people.

But there is one hell

of a lot of difference...

in fighting in the ring

and going to war in Vietnam.

From Louisville, Kentucky,

return of the champion,

Muhammad Ali.

The Quarry fight was

really exciting outside the ring.

Everybody who was

somebody came to that fight.

Cadillacs, gangster style.

Cats with minks and diamonds.

It was the fight night.

That left

jab is finding its mark.

It was a total

explosion of blackness...

from the highest levels

of civil rights...

I want to say that you're not only

our champion in the boxing area,

but you're also a champion of

justice and peace and human dignity.

Thank you.

You're the living example

of soul power.

This was the March on

Washington all in two fists.

- Thank you.

- Thank you. You're so kind.

Ali's case exposed...

how awkward

the legal system was...

and how arbitrary and capricious

it was in many respects.

Justice Stewart

dug further into the record...

and found

an obscure technical point...

on which the court

could reverse Ali's conviction.

But this ground for reversal

applied only to Muhammad Ali.

It didn't apply to anybody else.

The technicality was that the government

had denied Ali due process of law.

At the first stage

of this case,

the government had told

the Louisville draft board...

that not only was Ali

not opposed to all wars...

but that he was insincere

in claiming this.

Then when they got

to the Supreme Court,

Justice Douglas, at the very end of

the oral argument by the government,

turned to the solicitor general

and said...

"You don't question his sincerity?"

No, Mr. Justice,

we do not.

That's a denial of due process.

The government isn't allowed to

tell a judge Ali was insincere...

and the next day sincere...

in order to sustain

a conviction.

This little procedural point turning

this big case into a peewee case...

immediately got you five votes,

and other people then started

coming over to the opinion.

So the final outcome

was a unanimous victory.

They wrote a case that, insofar

as precedent is concerned...

the way I say it...

is so thin...

that if you turn it sideways,

it doesn't even cast a shadow.

The Supreme

Court ruled 8-0 today...

that Muhammad Ali

is indeed sincere...

in his Muslim beliefs

against war.

That overturns Ali's conviction

for refusing induction...

and removes the threat

of five years in jail.

When Ali heard the news,

he said, "Thanks be to Allah."

I was on 79th Street

on the south side...

and just bought me

an orange in a grocery store.

And the grocery owner came out and grabbed

me and hugged me with tears in his eyes...

a little black fella... and told me that

you've just been vindicated and you're free.

Eight judges all voted

in your favor.

Only God did it, buddy.

The God of heaven and earth,

these stars

He changed hearts.

Whew!

Hit me hard.

Well, all I have to say

is what's concerning my case.

I don't know what's happening

to this moment.

I don't know who will

be assassinated tonight.

I don't know who will be

enslaved or mistreated.

I don't who will be deprived of

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