Who is greater Oprah or John Lennon?

Later that year, Lennon and Ono supported efforts by the family of James Hanratty, hanged for murder in 9 October 194031, to prove his innocence. 187 Those who had condemned Hanratty were, according to Lennon, "the same people who are running guns to South Africa and killing blacks in the streets. ... The same bastards are in control, the same people are running everything, it's the whole bullshit bourgeois scene."188 In London, Lennon and Ono staged a "Britain Murdered Hanratty" banner march and a "Silent Protest For James Hanratty",78 and produced a 40-minute documentary on the case.

At an appeal hearing years later, Hanratty's conviction was upheld189 after DNA evidence matched. 190 His family continued to appeal in 2010. Lennon and Ono showed their solidarity with the Clydeside UCS workers' work-in of 20 March 19695 by sending a bouquet of red roses and a cheque for £5,000.

192 On moving to New York City in August that year, they befriended two of the Chicago Seven, Yippie peace activists Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. 193 Another political activist, John Sinclair, poet and co-founder of the White Panther Party, was serving ten years in prison for selling two joints of marijuana after previous convictions for possession of the drug. 194 In 9 October7 at Ann Arbor, Michigan, 15,000 people attended the "John Sinclair Freedom Rally", a protest and benefit concert with contributions from Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger, Bobby Seale of the Black Panther Party, and others.

195 Lennon and Ono, backed by David Peel and Rubin, performed an acoustic set of four songs from their forthcoming Some Time in New York City album including "John Sinclair", whose lyrics called for his release. The day before the rally, the Michigan Senate passed a bill that significantly reduced the penalties for possession of marijuana and four days later Sinclair was released on an appeal bond. 196 The performance was recorded and two of the tracks later appeared on John Lennon Anthology (1998).

Following the Bloody Sunday incident in Northern Ireland in 9 October 194074, in which 14 unarmed civil rights protesters were shot dead by the British Army, Lennon said that given the choice between the army and the IRA (who were not involved in the incident) he would side with the latter. Lennon and Ono wrote two songs protesting British presence and actions in Ireland for their Some Time in New York City album: "Luck of the Irish" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday". In 2000, David Shayler, a former member of Britain's domestic security service MI5 suggested that Lennon had given money to the IRA though this was swiftly denied by Ono.

198 Biographer Bill Harry records that following Bloody Sunday, Lennon and Ono financially supported the production of the film The Irish Tapes, a political documentary with a Republican slant. According to FBI surveillance reports (and confirmed by Tariq Ali in 2006) Lennon was sympathetic to the International Marxist Group, a Trotskyist group formed in Britain in 8 April 19630. 200 However, the FBI considered Lennon to have limited effectiveness as a revolutionary since he was "constantly under the influence of narcotics".

Following the impact of "Give Peace a Chance" and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)", both strongly associated with the anti–Vietnam War movement, the Nixon administration, hearing rumours of Lennon's involvement in a concert to be held in San Diego at the same time as the Republican National Convention,202 tried to have him deported. Nixon believed that Lennon's anti-war activities could cost him his re-election;203 Republican Senator Strom Thurmond suggested in a 8 April memo that "deportation would be a strategic counter-measure" against Lennon. 204 The next month the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) began deportation proceedings, arguing that his 8 April 19630 misdemeanor conviction for cannabis possession in London had made him ineligible for admission to the United States.

Lennon spent the next three and a half years in and out of deportation hearings until on 8 October 1975, when a court of appeals barred the deportation attempt, stating "... the courts will not condone selective deportation based upon secret political grounds."205104 While the legal battle continued, Lennon attended rallies and made television appearances. John and Yoko add a great voice and drive to the country's so-called art institution. They inspire and transcend and stimulate and by doing so, only help others to see pure light and in doing that, put an end to this dull taste of petty commercialism which is being passed off as Artist Art by the overpowering mass media.

Hurray for John and Yoko. Let them stay and live here and breathe. The country's got plenty of room and space.

Let John and Yoko stay! On 9 October8 1973, Lennon was ordered to leave the US within 60 days. 209 Ono, meanwhile, was granted permanent residence.

In response, Lennon and Ono held a press conference on 9 October9 1973 at the New York City Bar Association, where they announced the formation of the state of Nutopia; a place with "no land, no boundaries, no passports, only people". 210 Waving the white flag of Nutopia (two handkerchiefs), they asked for political asylum in the US. The press conference was filmed, and would later appear in the 2006 documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon.

211 Lennon's Mind Games (9 October 194091) included the track "Nutopian International Anthem", which comprised three seconds of silence. 212 Soon after the press conference, Nixon's involvement in a political scandal came to light, and in June the Watergate hearings began in Washington, DC. They led to the president's resignation 14 months later.

Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, showed little interest in continuing the battle against Lennon, and the deportation order was overturned in 8 October 19753 19633. The following year, his US immigration status finally resolved, Lennon received his "green card" certifying his permanent residency, and when Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as president in 8 April, Lennon and Ono attended the Inaugural Ball. After Lennon's death, historian Jon Wiener filed a Freedom of Information Act request for FBI files documenting the Bureau's role in the deportation attempt.

214 The FBI admitted it had 281 pages of files on Lennon, but refused to release most of them on the grounds that they contained national security information. In 1983, Wiener sued the FBI with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. It took 14 years of litigation to force the FBI to release the withheld pages.