Biography
On March 31, 1966, David Paul O'Brien and three companions burned their draft cards on the steps of the South Boston Courthouse before a crowd that included FBI agents; the crowd then attacked the burners. Prosecuted under the 1965 amendment, he was convicted and sentenced to the maximum six years as a youth offender under the Youth Corrections Act. His appeal produced the landmark Supreme Court decision United States v. O'Brien (1968), which held that draft-card burning was not protected symbolic speech.
