University of New Mexico students present heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali as legal champion
Ten years after he died, many still call Muhammad Ali the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. But for students at the University of New Mexico, it’s his championing in the courtroom that made him a knockout.
Last week, four undergraduate students from a constitutional law course, taught by Judge Lawrence Jones—a former New Jersey judge—presented a two-hour online program called “Outside the Ropes: What College Students Can Learn from Studying Muhammad Ali” via the Muhammad Ali Center reflecting the legal lessons gleaned from the appeal of his conviction that made it to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.
Born as Cassius Clay Jr., the Kentucky native won a gold medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics, and four years later, he became the world heavyweight champion. After he converted to Islam, the Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad gave the boxer a new name, Muhammad Ali.
But his bout with the legal system started when Ali refused induction to the draft during the Vietnam War, stating, “No, I will not go 10,000 miles from home to help murder and kill another poor people simply to continue the domination of white slave masters.” He was convicted of draft evasion, sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay $10,000. He was also stripped of his boxing license and title.
In spring 2025, the University of New Mexico course’s 40 students dug into Clay v. United States and its pathway to an appeal to the Supreme Court, studying the legal precedents related to the draft, including Estep v. United States, Witmer v. United States and United States v. Seeger.
Unlike Ali, the people involved in those cases were not famous people but private citizens, according to Jones, a prelaw adviser and a visiting lecturer at the University of New Mexico.
“It goes to show how even private citizens, when they take a case up to the U.S. Supreme Court, it could have a massive impact, legally, socially, culturally,” Jones says.
That lesson was just one layer to the case, says Karina Padilla, a junior at the school with law school ambitions, as students learned about the history of the draft, the civil rights movement and racial discrimination, along with Ali’s religious beliefs.
As Ali battled in court to overturn the conviction, public opinion gradually turned against the draft and the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court ultimately reversed Ali’s conviction because of the appeal board’s failure to provide a reason for the denial of his objection.
“The decision at the Supreme Court had more to do with procedure and how the draft board did not follow criteria,” Padilla says. “The draft has a racist history with more people of color. Muhammad Ali wasn’t respected, and his religion wasn’t respected.”
The decision is still meaningful, she says.
“This is not ancient history,” she adds. “It does still resonate today, for sure.”
After the class, Jones approached the Muhammad Ali Center about the students making a presentation, which will become available in upcoming days on the museum’s YouTube channel.
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