THE DRAFT
From the start, nine Roman Catholic pacifists on trial in a Baltimore federal court last week knew that they did not have a prayer. Defense Lawyer William Kunstler conceded immediately that the nine, who included three former missionaries, a nurse, an artist and two priests, had broken the law by taking 378 files from Draft Board 33 in suburban Catonsville last May and burning them with homemade napalm.
The Catonsville Nine did, however, use some highly unusual arguments. They contended that "some property has no right to exist," namely the draft files, because they were instruments of an illegal war....
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