Greeting: America and the Draft · Episode 10 of 12 · 24 min
Hell No: Draft Resistance and the Courts That Redefined Conscience
As young men burned draft cards in the streets, the Supreme Court quietly rewrote what "conscience" meant, then slammed one door shut. The episode pairs the resistance, including card-burnings, the Catonsville Nine and exile to Canada, with the courts: Seeger and Welsh widening objector status to secular conscience, Gillette barring objection to a single war, and Muhammad Ali's 8-0 vindication. The resisters' prison sentences sit heavily.
Who's who
- David J. MillerFirst person prosecuted for burning a draft card
- David Paul O'BrienCard burner whose case defined symbolic speech
- Daniel BerriganJesuit priest and public face of the Catonsville raid
- Philip BerriganJosephite priest and public face of the Catonsville raid
- David HarrisOrganizer of The Resistance who refused induction
- Muhammad Ali+1 more episodeHeavyweight champion who refused induction in 1967
- Daniel SeegerObjector in the 1965 case widening conscientious objector status
- Guy GilletteObjector in the 1971 case rejecting single-war objection
Where it happens
- Catonsville, MarylandWhere nine activists burned draft files in 1968
- Canada+2 more episodesDestination of many draft evaders and resisters
- Houston, Texas+5 more episodesWhere Ali refused to step forward for induction
Timeline
- August 1965Congress makes knowingly destroying a draft card a crime
- April 1967Ali refuses induction in Houston and is stripped of his title
- May 1968The Catonsville Nine burn draft files
- June 1970Welsh v. United States extends objector status to moral and ethical objectors
- March 1971Gillette v. United States rejects selective objection
- June 1971Clay v. United States unanimously overturns Ali's conviction
Still debated
Estimates of how many fled to Canada diverge, with historians treating 30,000 to 100,000 as the defensible range. Clay turned on the appeal board's failure to give reasons, not an endorsement of Ali's stance, and whether Seeger and Welsh truly widened conscience after Gillette is left open.