But, an underlying issue was: a man was a civilian until the moment he took the step forward at induction, yet Selective Service was run by the Defense Department and imposed military legal procedures on civilians.
TB, my understanding is that SS is a civilian operation whose director is selected by the President.
Oli, the SS director is appointed by the president, but in the Vietnam era, and way before, the SS director was General Lewis B. Hershey, an active duty officer who was as durable in his post as J. Edgar Hoover. Most SS employees were civilians, but DoD ran it.
The victory Ali won: he claimed exemption as a Muslim minister. His draft board and every other body in the "due process" line turned him down. He refused induction and was convicted of draft-dodging. He got the max: 5 years in prison and a $10k fine, seldom levied in those days.
But: Ali was registered in a SS local in an all-black neighborhood in Houston. All the local SS board members were white. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Ali had been deprived of his rights because the composition of the draft board should have reflected the racial/religious makeup of the neighborhood or region it served--the better to enable them to understand religious claims such as Ali's. To my way of thinking, it was a major affirmation that Selective Service had some genuine "civilian" accountability.
