Korematsu v. United States (1944)
Saturday, November 28, 2009 at 12:36PM Read the opinion here.
Issue. Did an Executive Order during World War II that effectively placed individuals of Japanese ancestry living along the West Coast in detention camps violate the equal protection clause?
Background. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the American declaration of war against Japan, President Roosevelt issued an executive order to safeguard the country against espionage and sabotage by detaining all individuals of Japanese ancestry living along the West Coast. The Order specifically targeted those of Japanese descent, a clear race-based act. An individual was convicted for violating the Order and he appealed his case to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction.
Court's Analysis. This is one of those rare cases where the Supreme Court found that a classification imposing a disadvantage on race survived strict scrutiny analysis. Since the equal protect claim was based on race, a suspect classification, strict scrutiny was applied. The government was required to demonstrate the "[p]ressing public necessity" to target those of Japanese ancestry. The Court found that the State met that burden.
The Court notes:
Like curfew, exclusion of those of Japanese origin was deemed necessary because of the presence of an unascertained number of disloyal members of the group most of whom we have no doubt were loyal to this country. . .it was impossible to bring an immediate segregation of the disloyal from the loyal
Effectively, the Court deferred to the judgment of the military which believed a need was there to prevent sabotage and military strikes against the United States. The Court concludes:
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.
In dissent, Justice Murphy saw the Court's decision as the legalization of racism.
Afterword. This is one of the most infamous decisions of the Supreme Court, along with Dred Scott and Plessy. The military clearly targeted Japanese-Americans because they were Japanese. Americans of German and Italian ancestry were not similarly targeted and there were actually German-American Nazi leagues in the United States. The decision was clearly wrong, despite the hysteria following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.