Massachusetts v Laird Draft Challenge

The state of Massachusetts passed a law during the Vietnam War, asserting that it could not conscript its citizens to fight in any undeclared war. State lawmakers aimed this statute directly at the Vietnam conflict, which Congress had never formally declared as a war. Massachusetts then challenged the federal government in court in a case known as Massachusetts v. Laird. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, leaving the law without effect and the draft in place.

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