Korematsu V. United States (1944)

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Korematsu v. United States (1944) Facts: This case is about Fred Korematsu (Korematsu), versus President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 (United States). This order granted the U.S. military the power to ban tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry from areas deemed critical to domestic security. Korematsu refused to leave his home in San Leandro, California. He violated the Civilian Exclusion Order No. 34 of the U.S. Army. His care reached the Supreme Court in 1944 after he appealed his conviction. Procedural History: Justice Frank Murphy argued that the exclusion at issue here goes over the edge of constitutional power and falls into the subject of racism. Issue: Was it within the power of Congress and the Executive to exclude persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast at the time that they were excluded? Rule: Legal restrictions that restrict the civil rights of a single racial group are subject to the most severe examination. But, pressing public necessity may sometimes excuse such restrictions. Application: In October 1944, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for the Korematsu case along with Mitsuye Endo's habeas corpus petition challenging the army's dishonest detention. The high court accepted the army's justification of "military necessity" and sided with the government. Conclusion: The court decided against Korematsu (6-3), delivered by Justice Hugo Black, whom stated that “legal restrictions on the rights of a single racial group will always be “suspect” and that ‘courts must subject them to the most rigid
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