Politics on Trial: Muhammad Ali vs. the Draft

Past Present Future

D&HR Media Ltd

Politics, News, Philosophy, Society & Culture, History

4.7 • 747 Ratings

🗓️ 11 January 2026

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s episode is about the epic battle between Muhammad Ali and the US government over its attempt to draft him during the Vietnam war and what happened when that fight reached the US Supreme Court. What were Ali’s grounds for claiming to be a conscientious objector? How did that argument cut across wider questions of race, religion and power? Why did the Supreme Court change its original decision against Ali to find unanimously in his favour? And who won and who lost as a result? Out now on PPF+: Part two of David’s conversation with Robert Saunders about the fight over Irish Home Rule: how close did Britain get to an actual civil war in 1914 before another war intervened? To hear this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Next time in Politics on Trial: The Gang of Four Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:15.1	Hello, my name's David Rundsenman and this is past-present future, the History of Ideas podcast.
1:21.6	Today, we are returning for a final set of episodes in our series, Politics on Trial.
1:30.8	We've reached the later part of the 20th century. Today, the case in question happened in 1971. It's about a man whom the United States government in 1971 still insisted on referring to as Cassius Clay, but we know
1:38.7	him as Muhammad Ali. And it is the story of what happened when his case against being drafted into the US
1:47.3	army during the Vietnam War reached the Supreme Court. What took place at the Supreme Court
1:54.2	is truly remarkable. In this series Politics on Trial, which I'm aware has been going on for quite a while now,
	...

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