Muhammad Ali: United States v. Clay (Ali) Court Documents, FBI Files & Histories

Muhammad Ali: United States v. Clay (Ali) Court Documents, FBI Files & Histories

1,660 pages of court documents, FBI files and histories related to Muhammad Ali's refusal to be inducted into the United States military during the Vietnam War.

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in Louisville, Kentucky. In the 1960 Olympics he won the gold medal in light heavyweight boxing and returned to the United States to pursue his professional boxing career. It was also around this time that Clay became a member of the Nation of Islam, announcing his name as Cassius X, then Muhammad Ali in 1964. In 1967, Ali had been reigning world heavyweight champion for three years when he publicly refused to be inducted into the military during the Vietnam War. On April 28, 1967 Ali reported at the Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station in Houston but refused to take the step forward symbolizing his entrance into the United States military. As a result of his actions, boxing officials decided to punish Ali by stripping him of his titles and suspending him from boxing. During his suspension from 1967-1970, Ali increased his activism and toured around the world speaking to civil rights organizations and anti-war groups.


Court Documents and Transcripts

1,459 pages of court documents tracking Ali's arrest, appeals and the United States Supreme Court case of Clay v. United States, 403 U.S. 698 (1971).
 
Court activity covered by the documents include:

On May 8, 1967, a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas indicted Muhammad Ali for failing to submit to induction. Ali was tried before Judge Joe Ingraham. An all-white jury of six men and six women took just 21 minutes of deliberating to return a guilty verdict against Ali. Judge Ingraham sentenced him to the maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. On July 7, 1967, Ali testified in support of an unsuccessful motion before Judge Ingraham requesting permission to leave the country.

On May 6, 1968, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld Ali’s conviction. On June 6, 1968, the Court of Appeals denied Ali’s motion for a rehearing by the court en banc (a meeting of all the judges on the court). On July 15, 1968, Ali petitioned for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court of the United States.

On July 18, 1968, the Department of Justice requested that the FBI disclose any wiretap surveillance involving Ali. The FBI informed the DOJ of five wiretapped conversations involving Ali. The DOJ, in turn, disclosed this information to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court remanded Ali’s case, along with several other cases involving FBI wiretaps, to the district court for further hearings in the case Giordino v. United States (1969).

In June of 1969, Judge Ingraham presided over hearings into the possibility that illegal wiretaps tainted Ali’s prosecution and conviction. He ruled that even if the content of the conversations had been shared with the DOJ lawyers handling Ali’s case, the conversations were so innocuous that they could not have influenced Ali’s prosecution. On July 6, 1970, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld Judge Ingraham’s ruling in the taint hearing and declined to reexamine Ali’s objections to his original conviction. On August 19, 1970 the Court of Appeal for the Fifth Circuit denies Ali’s request for a rehearing en banc.
 

Supreme Court Transcript & Trial Report - Clay v. United States

On January 11, 1971, the Supreme Court granted certiorari on a single issue in the case: whether Ali’s conviction should be vacated because of erroneous advice by the DOJ to the effect that Ali’s beliefs are not religious. April 19, 1971, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Clay v. United States. On June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court issued its decision, unanimously (8–0 ruling, Thurgood Marshall recused himself due to his previous involvement in the case as a U.S. Department of Justice official) reversing Ali’s conviction on the grounds that the Department of Justice erred in advising the board of appeal that Ali’s beliefs were not sincere and not religious in nature.


Supreme Court Oral Argument Audio Recording Clay v. United States

April 19, 1971 The Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Clay v. United States.

A 1 hour recording of oral arguments in the case of Clay v. United States. Clay v. United States, 403 U.S. 698 (1971), was Muhammad Ali's appeal of his conviction in 1967 for refusing to report for induction into the United States military forces during the Vietnam War. His local draft board had rejected his application for conscientious objector classification. In a unanimous 8–0 ruling (Thurgood Marshall recused himself from the case), 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 Clay's [Ali's] beliefs are founded on tenets of the Muslim religion as he understands them."


FBI Files

48 pages of FBI files related to Ali's refusal to be inducted into the military. Includes memos covering the Bureau's inquiry into whether Ali's seeking conscientious objector status was legitimate.


United States v. Clay: Muhammad Ali’s Fight Against the Vietnam Draft

United States v. Clay: Muhammad Ali’s Fight Against the Vietnam Draft a 105-page history by Winston Bowman Associate Historian, Federal Judicial History Office, Federal Judicial Center.

Includes a narrative on the history of the case. Background on the religious conversion of Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali. Information about the indictment and trial, sentence and travel restrictions, initial appeal, remand, second appeal and Clay v. United States in the Supreme Court. Covers legal issues concerning ministerial exemption, covert surveillance, constitutional challenges to the draft system, and religious freedom. A chronology of the judicial process from April 28, 1967 to June 28, 1971.

Covers legal questions before the Federal Courts including: Was Ali guilty of violating the Universal Military Training and Service Act by refusing to submit for military induction?; Did the DOJ’s legal advice to the selective service board of appeal necessitate reversing Ali’s conviction?; Was the selective service regime created by the Universal Military Training and Service Act constitutional?; Did the FBI’s warrantless wiretaps of conversations involving Ali taint his criminal conviction? Other sections include: The Federal Courts and Their Jurisdiction, Biographies of the judges and lawyers in the case and transcripts of historical documents.