The Case of David Mitchell Versus The United States

David H. Mitchell is a young man charged, and now convicted, in Federal Court with failing to report for induction into the armed forces. Refusing to cooperate with the system by becoming an officially recognized conscientious objector, Mitchell decided to turn the court proceedings into an indictment of his accusers, the United States government. Hence, in a profound sense, this was a case of Mitchell versus the United States rather than vice versa. In his brief on behalf of Mitchell, the noted civil libertarian lawyer Conrad Lynn presented an indictment of the United States government on moral, political, legal, and constitutional grounds in the course of defending Mitchell’s refusal to make himself part of a war and a foreign policy which he abhors.

Volume 1, Number 2; Autumn 1965