A lesson from Muhammad Ali in conscientious objection

Less than a month ago, the U.S. Supreme Court discovered a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry. The court ordered county clerks in all 50 states to issue gay couples the same kind of marriage license they’d provide to opposite-sex couples.

Now the question turns to conscientious objection. What rights do churches have to say no to same-sex wedding ceremonies? Or bakers to refuse to make wedding cakes? Or photographers to decline to create a wedding album?

The doctrine of conscientious objection flows from the Declaration of Independence, which says the Creator endows certain inalienable rights—those the government did not give and therefore cannot take.

Contemporary America has been grappling with what that means, particularly when it comes to religious freedom. Does the government act against an inalienable right when it forces someone to violate his or her conscience?

Forty-four years ago, world heavyweight champion Cassius Clay objected to the Vietnam War and sought conscientious objector status. He said he was not trying to avoid being drafted, only that he objected—based on his religious views—to fighting an enemy who had done him no harm. Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali when he converted to Islam in 1964. He was 22 and had just defeated Sonny Liston for his first championship title.

In 1965, Ali failed the military’s mental aptitude screening test and was disqualified for the draft. But as the war dragged on, the Army lowered testing standards and Ali was reclassified as qualified.

His first request to be a conscientious objector was denied. Ali showed up for his scheduled induction into the Armed Forces in late 1967, but he refused to step forward when his name was called. He was arrested, and two months later convicted of draft evasion, which carried a sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Ali appealed his conviction all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court but lost his boxing license and his world championship title. But Ali didn’t waver in his insistence that he be exempt from the war effort. He claimed his new religion, Islam, dictated he not fight in a war. But his public comments brought both race and politics into the matter.

“My enemy’s the white people,” Ali said. “Not Viet Congs, or Chinese, or Japanese. You won’t even stand up for me in America for my religious beliefs, and you want me to go somewhere and fight? But you won’t even stand up for me here at home!”

In April 1971, the Supreme Court questioned whether Ali was a legitimate conscientious objector. The justices tried to figure out the difference between the Islam of the Middle East, and the beliefs of the Nation of Islam group in the United States, of which Ali was a member. Was he against all wars of any kind whatsoever, or were his objections really about a political disagreement with America and therefore only a pretext for dodging the draft?

In the end, the Supreme Court didn’t side with the government’s argument. Eight justices—Thurgood Marshall recused himself because of his prior role as U.S. solicitor general—held that they couldn’t really determine which reason the draft appeal board had relied on to deny Ali conscientious-objector status. And so, on that technical, narrow ground, Ali’s conviction for draft evasion was thrown out.

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