Principal Questions in Clay v. United States
5/6/1968
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Shortly after he won the World Boxing Championship, Cassius Marsellus Clay, Jr. joined the Nation of Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. Three years later, he refused to fight in the Vietnam War. As an ordained Black Muslim minister, he believed he was exempt from military service. He also felt it was wrong to ask African Americans to fight for freedoms they didn’t enjoy themselves: “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on other innocent brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?”
This document is an excerpt from the opinion in the court case Cassius Marsellus Clay, Jr. v. United States of America from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The case relates to Ali’s refusal to "submit to induction" into the Army during the Vietnam War draft. In this excerpt, the court explains the denial of a "ministerial exemption" and the denial of "conscientious objector status" to Ali – two of the five principal questions the court considered in its decision.
The case was first tried in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston, and then appealed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. In this opinion, the Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court's ruling – a conviction of the selective service violation, with a sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $10,000 – and denied Ali's appeal. The World Boxing Association stripped Ali of his title and banned him from boxing for three years. The case eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Ali's conviction was reversed in 1971.
This document is an excerpt from the opinion in the court case Cassius Marsellus Clay, Jr. v. United States of America from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The case relates to Ali’s refusal to "submit to induction" into the Army during the Vietnam War draft. In this excerpt, the court explains the denial of a "ministerial exemption" and the denial of "conscientious objector status" to Ali – two of the five principal questions the court considered in its decision.
The case was first tried in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston, and then appealed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. In this opinion, the Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court's ruling – a conviction of the selective service violation, with a sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $10,000 – and denied Ali's appeal. The World Boxing Association stripped Ali of his title and banned him from boxing for three years. The case eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Ali's conviction was reversed in 1971.
This primary source comes from the Records of the U.S. Courts of Appeals.
Full Citation: Opinion in Clay v. United in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; 5/6/1968; Case Number 24991; Cassius Marsellus Clay, Jr. v. United States of America; Case Files, 1891 - 1997; Records of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, Record Group 276; National Archives at Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/questions-clay-v-us, June 24, 2025]Activities that use this document
- Breaking the Law Intentionally: Civil Disobedience
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