Randy Kehler

Randy Kehler (born July 16, 1944) is an American pacifist, tax resister, and social justice advocate. Kehler objected to America's involvement in the Vietnam War and refused to cooperate with the draft. He is also known for he and his wife Betsy Corner's refusal to pay federal income taxes in protest of war and military spending, a decision that led to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seizing their house in 1989.

Kehler was involved in several anti-war organizations in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s, Kehler served as Executive Director of the National Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign.

Early life and education
Kehler was born on July 16, 1944, in Bronxville, New York, and was raised in Scarsdale. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated from Harvard University in 1967 with a degree in government. While at Harvard, Kehler became involved with the Harlem chapter of Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Kehler has credited Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 with shaping his interest in radical politics.

Opposition to the Vietnam War
In 1969, during the Vietnam War, Kehler returned his draft card to the Selective Service System. He refused to seek exemption as a conscientious objector, because he felt that doing so would be a form of cooperation with the US government's actions in Vietnam. After being called for induction and refusing to submit, he was charged with a federal crime. Found guilty at trial, Kehler served twenty-two months of a two-year sentence.

Daniel Ellsberg's exposure to Kehler in August 1969 (as Kehler was preparing to submit to his sentence) at the 13th Triennial Meeting of the War Resisters International, held at Haverford College, was a pivotal event in Ellsberg's decision to copy and release the Pentagon Papers.

Resistance of federal income tax
From 1977 onward, Kehler and his wife Betsy Corner refused to pay their federal income taxes in protest of war and military expenditures; they continued to pay their state and local taxes, and donated the money they owed in federal income taxes to charity. This led to the seizure of their house in Colrain, Massachusetts, in 1989, by the IRS, which was then purchased by the federal government, leading to a years-long struggle between Kehler and Corner—who were joined by supporters from the surrounding community—the government, and another couple who attempted to purchase and move in to the home. The events were documented in the 1997 documentary film An Act of Conscience.