Clay v. United States, 403 U.S. 698 (1971), was Muhammad Ali’s[1] 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 due to his previous involvement in the case as a Justice department official), the United States Supreme Court reversed the Fifth Circuit’s confirmation of the conviction.
The Supreme Court of the United States found the government had failed to properly specify why Ali’s application had been denied, thereby requiring the conviction to be overturned. A unanimous decision (8-0), “the court said the record shows that [Ali’s] beliefs are founded on tenets of the Muslim religion as he understand them.