korematsu v. us
Year: 1944
Result: 6-3, favor US
Related Constitutional issue/Amendment: 5th Amendment
Civil rights or Civil liberties: Civil liberties
Significance/precedent: The Executive order to relocate all Japanese persons in the United States and the Congressional statutes that accompanied this order were directed at one race, disregarding their suspect classification. The fear of espionage within the US and other assumed threats to national security during wartime allowed what would usually have been an unconstitutional government action to be carried out.
Quote from majority opinion: “To cast this case into outlines of racial prejudice, without reference to the real military dangers which were presented, merely confuses the issue. Korematsu was not excluded from the Military Area because of hostility to him or his race. He was excluded because we are at war with the Japanese Empire, because the properly constituted military authorities feared an invasion of our West Coast and felt constrained to take proper security measures, because they decided that the military urgency of the situation demanded that all citizens of Japanese ancestry be segregated from the West Coast temporarily, and finally, because Congress, reposing its confidence in this time of war in our military leaders -- as inevitably it must -- determined that they should have the power to do just this. There was evidence of disloyalty on the part of some, the military authorities considered that the need for action was great, and time was short. We cannot -- by availing ourselves of the calm perspective of hindsight -- now say that at that time these actions were unjustified.”
Summary of dissent: Korematsu was denied obvious constitutional rights. He was going to be placed in a "concentration camp" solely based on the fact that he was Japanese. His ancestry should not force him to be subject to unfair mandates and acts, specifically statutes that contradict one another: one telling him to stay where he was, one telling him to go.
6-word summary: National threats justify race based decrees.
Result: 6-3, favor US
Related Constitutional issue/Amendment: 5th Amendment
Civil rights or Civil liberties: Civil liberties
Significance/precedent: The Executive order to relocate all Japanese persons in the United States and the Congressional statutes that accompanied this order were directed at one race, disregarding their suspect classification. The fear of espionage within the US and other assumed threats to national security during wartime allowed what would usually have been an unconstitutional government action to be carried out.
Quote from majority opinion: “To cast this case into outlines of racial prejudice, without reference to the real military dangers which were presented, merely confuses the issue. Korematsu was not excluded from the Military Area because of hostility to him or his race. He was excluded because we are at war with the Japanese Empire, because the properly constituted military authorities feared an invasion of our West Coast and felt constrained to take proper security measures, because they decided that the military urgency of the situation demanded that all citizens of Japanese ancestry be segregated from the West Coast temporarily, and finally, because Congress, reposing its confidence in this time of war in our military leaders -- as inevitably it must -- determined that they should have the power to do just this. There was evidence of disloyalty on the part of some, the military authorities considered that the need for action was great, and time was short. We cannot -- by availing ourselves of the calm perspective of hindsight -- now say that at that time these actions were unjustified.”
Summary of dissent: Korematsu was denied obvious constitutional rights. He was going to be placed in a "concentration camp" solely based on the fact that he was Japanese. His ancestry should not force him to be subject to unfair mandates and acts, specifically statutes that contradict one another: one telling him to stay where he was, one telling him to go.
6-word summary: National threats justify race based decrees.