Roles and Responsibilities of Government
"The Court faced two issues: should it automatically accept the judgement of the military as to the need for the relocation program, or should it require a judicial investigation of the question? Was there factual support for the military judgement that the course of the war required the exclusion and confinement of the Japanese American population of the West Coast?"
Eugene V. Rostow, The Yale Law Journal, Jan. 1, 1945 The Japanese American Cases---A Disaster |
"In war, we take actions more extreme than necessary..."
"In war, our judgement is blurred..." "In war, our fears are high..." That is why is the responsibility of the court to "make sure that judgement is clear." Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Transcripts from A Conversation on the Constitution: The Importance of the Japanese Internment Cases" annenbergclassroom.org |
"We were not detaining Japanese, we were detaining American citizens of Japanese ancestry. and we are a nation of immigrants and I think that we're all Americans and because we of Japanese ancestry doesn't mean that we're Japanese and that seems to me a very key point and I'm not a bit sure that any court in this country would sustain that judgment in Korematsu today. " Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Transcripts from A Conversation on the Constitution: The Importance of the Japanese Internment Cases" annenbergclassroom.org
"National security becomes a paramount concern of the government, which may, under certain conditions, decide to subordinate the constitutional rights of some individuals to the collective safety of the people." Kermit L. Hall and John J. Patrick, The Pursuit of Justice