I don't find people going to Canada as heroic or commendable, at all. Stand up and make your statement like Ali did, without running. The ones who stayed in Canada I have a little more respect, since they, at least, followed through with their position. Ali getting something significant out of refusing to serve was not inevitable, or even likely, at all, in 1967.
Why? They gave up their professions. Their citizenship? Their future? Same argument you made. They weren't famous enough to get away with not running and ending up in jail. So you really beleive he would have refused to serve if we were in peacetime?
First, Ali was going to jail except for a last ditch decision by the Supreme Court. Second, that's not even close to the same argument I made. Now you're just being silly.
This... I know a guy that started his own trucking company and today is a multi, MULTI millionaire who openly brags about his 90 IQ. I actually met Ali in Columbus in the early to mid 1990's at a signing event. He was barely coherent even then but I found him to be very personable and even in his diminished state, a real card... I really wish I still had his autograph but it got lost over the years. I'm not an autograph type of guy but I wanted to get his.
Yes, terrible that he was able to have his case heard in our court system. One might also say he was targeted because of his notoriety.
The Supreme Court isn't TMZ. They didn't take Ali's case because he was famous. They took it because it was compelling and worthwhile, in their opinion. And, you're kidding yourself if you don't think the government wasn't targeting outspoken black men in the 1960s. Making an example of Ali would have been really appealing to a lot of people at that time.
Ali, like Jack Johnson before him, took America's racism and threw it right back in our faces. I think there's something to the notion that Ali was "targeted"...
You're right, in an 8-0 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that Ali was just too famous to go to jail. Or, those guys in jail had poor lawyers, didn't have justifiable reasons according to the court, didn't fight the charge, etc., etc.
When did that ruling come down? I ask because of the MLK murder. I wonder if the thought of jailing Ali on the heels of King's murder would have been catalyst for rioting... Just a thought. Never mind. Two seconds of research shows it was a 1971 ruling. Disregard.
Wait, your issue is that he access to a good lawyer? I don't know the specifics of those guys who went to jail for refusing to enlist. I was just theorizing. I do know that Ali had his day in court, as per his constitutional rights, and his fame wasn't a consideration in the verdict in his favor, in the end.