I want the 9th Circuit to have my baby!

[David Floyd]

Yeah, I was thinking Korematsu, though the SCOTUS will NEVER actually cite the case as precedent, even though it is still good law

And with good reason. Everyone who actually reads the decision knows that it's idiotic, and everyone who doesn't read the decision but knows enough to know that it essentially upheld a law excluding people based on race would be up in arms because of racism.

Quite frankly, many to most of the SCOTUS decisions during WW2, and even more so during WW1, dealing with government actions against citizens because of the war, were blatantly wrong, and simply a result of war hysteria. Korematsu is a good example for WW2, and for WW1, Schenk v US or Debs v US.

[Alexander's Horse]

These rulings caused a lot of joy around the world. There is a feeling the United States has lost touch with its fundamental values whilst Gitmo exists.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Everyone who actually reads the decision knows that it's idiotic, and everyone who doesn't read the decision but knows enough to know that it essentially upheld a law excluding people based on race would be up in arms because of racism.

Yet it is still good law and has never come close to be overturned.

[Drake Tungsten]

There is a feeling the United States has lost touch with its fundamental values whilst Gitmo exists.

Hey, we're just trying to be like our buddies in Australia. First, we put the terrorists in detention camps. Once we've got the hang of that, we can move on to illegal immigrants like you lot. You have so much to teach us...

[David Floyd]

Yet it is still good law and has never come close to be overturned.

Granted, but I don't see how Korematsu could realistically be applied today because of the problems with it. Sure, it COULD be, but as you said, it probably will not be.

[Ned]

Originally posted by David Floyd


And with good reason. Everyone who actually reads the decision knows that it's idiotic, and everyone who doesn't read the decision but knows enough to know that it essentially upheld a law excluding people based on race would be up in arms because of racism.

Quite frankly, many to most of the SCOTUS decisions during WW2, and even more so during WW1, dealing with government actions against citizens because of the war, were blatantly wrong, and simply a result of war hysteria. Korematsu is a good example for WW2, and for WW1, Schenk v US or Debs v US.

David, to be fair, the issue was nationality.

The racism came from the press and from Hollywood.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Granted, but I don't see how Korematsu could realistically be applied today because of the problems with it.

As long as the emergency actions have nothing to do with a specific 'race', then it can be applied, indirectly, because they don't cite it too often.

[Ned]

Since Korematsu had to do with nationality, not race, I would like someone to explain how to apply it in the case of al Qa'ida?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Korematsu said that the President can intern people without trials in cases of national emergency. Nationality, race, etc doesn't matter for the main principle.

[Ned]

Imran, all you saying is that Korematsu had nothing to do with race or nationality. I beg to differ. It had everything to do with nationality. If FDR had ordered people of Asian dissent to be placed in concentration camps I am sure the Supreme Court would have overruled FDR.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Imran, all you saying is that Korematsu had nothing to do with race or nationality. I beg to differ. It had everything to do with nationality. If FDR had ordered people of Asian dissent to be placed in concentration camps I am sure the Supreme Court would have overruled FDR.

The only reason it had anything to do with nationality is because FDR only sent Japanese to concentration camps. It has to do with enemies. Al Quada is an enemy. I don't really see how Korematsu doesn't apply.

And even if FDR has said 'all Asians' and not just Japanese, I think they would have held it up. It was ruled on the basis of national emergency (and 9-0, btw).

[Ned]

The case itself refutes that it was based on race. Had it been, the Supremes said they would have held the order unconstutitional.

"It is said that we are dealing here with the case of imprisonment of a citizen in a concentration camp solely because of his ancestry, without evidence or inquiry concerning his loyalty and good disposition towards the United States. Our task would be simple, our duty clear, were this a case involving the imprisonment of a loyal citizen in a concentration camp because of racial prejudice. Regardless of the true nature of the assembly and relocation centers -- and we deem it unjustifiable to call them concentration camps with all the ugly connotations that term implies -- we are dealing specifically with nothing but an exclusion order. 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...."

http://www.tourolaw.edu/patch/Korematsu/

[Imran Siddiqui]

The case itself refutes that it was based on race. Had it been, the Supremes said they would have held the order unconstutitional.

Yes, they cloud in flowery language that it WAS about race. ALL of the Japanese race on the West Coast were sent away. Even those whose nationality was American, but were of the Japanese race were sent away.

So, in the end, the Supremes = bull****.

[Kuciwalker]

So, in the end, the Supremes = bull****.

[Ned]

Irman, it was about loyalty to the Emperor and all that. It had everything to do with nationality and had NOTHING to do with race no matter how many times you repeat it.

What was racist at the time was the way the media and film protrayed the Japanese.