The Spock Conviction: What Comes Next?

A federal district court in Boston has found Dr. Benjamin Spock and three of his codefendants guilty of conspiring to “hinder and interfere … with the administration” of the Selective Service Act, and to “counsel, aid and abet … the registrants to unlawfully … refuse and evade service in the armed forces . . .” They have been sentenced to two years in prison and fined from $5,000 to $10,000 each.

What had been billed as one of the great free speech cases of our era went off only as a limited drama. Once the court had ruled it would take no evidence on the legality or constitutionality of the war in Vietnam, or on the draft as a means of prosecuting that war, the issues became relatively n...