First things first, Muhammad Ali does not need to be pardoned. For some reason, Donald Trump needs to be reminded of that, but in search to be the Oprah of pardons he has decided to pull this nugget from his colon to see if he can get a few more points on his poll numbers.
Muhammad Ali (aka “The Greatest”) was convicted for draft evasion in 1968. His reasons are eloquently stated in this amazing quote:
“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?
No, I am not going ten thousand miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would put my prestige in jeopardy and could cause me to lose millions of dollars which should accrue to me as the champion.
But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is right here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality…
If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. But I either have to obey the laws of the land or the laws of Allah. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail. We’ve been in jail for four hundred years.”
Muhammad Ali, 1966The Greatest risked and lost just about everything by refusing to report eligible for service that year. He was indicted and convicted of draft evasion. He was stripped of all of his titles that same year. He appealed this conviction, which was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court in 1971. You can read the decision here.
He doesn’t need to be pardoned because he was never guilty of a crime. President Carter also vacated convictions of draft evaders in 1977, so if the Court had not overturned his conviction, that would have expunged his record then.
It is clear that this idiot of a President has no idea what a pardon actually is. A pardon, by definition, is an implicit admission of guilt.
This brings us to the differences between legislative immunity and a pardon. They are substantial. The latter carries an imputation of guilt; acceptance a confession of it. The former has no such imputation or confession.
Burdick v. United States 236 U.S. 79 (1915)
The stupidity does not end there, though. You see, Ali brilliantly took a stand that was most unpopular at that time: opposition to the Vietnam War. He took a stand against and unjust system trying to fight a war that he felt (and most would later) was completely and utterly wrong. His stance was much more dangerous than the stance that Colin Kaepernick is taking at this time. What Colin Kaepernick is doing is simply making a perfectly legal statement. He is breaking no laws. He is taking a knee on the field because this was his form of peaceful protest suggested to him by a white former Army Ranger in response to the brutal killings of black men all over this country.
In his same presser, President Trump condemned those who are simply exercising their First Amendment rights and then tries to kiss Black America’s collective ass by invoking the name of a man who was against a lot of what Donald Trump stands for.
You can’t make this up. This is what we have for leadership in America.
I hope Europe and Canada kick our collective asses for allowing this clown into the White House.
We deserve it.