Korematsu v. U.S.
Date: 1944
Case Background:
All Japaneses Americans were ordered to stop their lives as they were and move to internment camps during World War II. There citizenship did not matter. These camps were called "War Relocation Camps" and over 110,000 people of Japanese heritage, who lived on the Pacific coast were ordered to them after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. The government found all Japanese suspicious after the bombing. Issue: The issue of the case was regarding the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066. The order was signed by President Roosevelt on February 19, 1942 and authorized the Secretary of War to order Japanese Americans to internment camps regardless of their citizenship. Decision: The Supreme Court decided 6-3 that Executive Order 9066 was constitutional. The Court claimed that the need to protect against espionage outweighed the rights of Korematsu and other Japaneses' rights. Impact: The decision has been very controversial. The conviction that Korematsu evaded internment was overturned in November of 1983, after Korematsu challenged the prior decision by filing for a writ of coram nobis. |
Justice: Harlan F. Stone
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