Question

political science:

Please discuss the following question: On the Supreme Court case Korematsu vs. the US, Do you agree or disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision? Why? Do you side with the minority dissent? Explain your reasoning (please do not include any background information such as facts of the case, I just need a detailed discussion), please talk about your opinion as more as possible.

Answer 1

ANSWER-

Korematsu vs. the US-

During World War II, Presidential Executive Order gave the military authority to exclude citizens of Japanese ancestry from areas deemed critical to national defense. A Japanese man remained in California and violated Civilian Exclusion Order. The Court sided with the government and held that the need to protect against espionage outweighed man's rights.Korematsu took his case to the federal court, ruled against him; appealed and took case to the Supreme Court on the basis that Order 9066 violated the 14th and 5th Amendments

Supreme Court Decision-

Ruled 6-3 against Korematsu and upheld that the order was constitutional and legal; overturned decades later and was given a medal by Bill Clinton

Case effects-

President Bill Clinton awarded Fred Korematsu the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Significantly, not until the 2003 case Grutter v. Bollinger (dealing with the affirmative action policy at the University of Michigan Law School) did the Court again approve an instance of racial discrimination against the application of Black's "rigid scrutiny" standard

How society was effected

-The Japanese American people were subjected to live in internment camps and give up the lands and life they new.
-General Dewitt turned his demagoguery against the Japanese

Precedent-

This Amendment in the Bill of Rights states that no person shall be "deprived of life, liberty, or
property without due process of the law". Korematsu argued that he was
being deprived of his right to live freely without the appropriate legal
process. This due process of the law clause has been found in previous court
cases to restrict the type of control that the Government is permitted to
exercise over citizens.

My opinion-

If there is no threat to the people in the United States then there is no need to place innocent people in a relocation camp. Its not fair.

A lot of Americans seem to be unaware of the extent of the Japanese internment during WWII. For example that not only were many of them US citizens but many others would also have been citizens were it not for the Exclusion Act. The author points out that while there were curfews for those of German and Italian decent they were not singled out as traitors who deserved internment. Many of the statements made against Japanese Americans by high ranking goverment officials were very racist, but at the time expressed popular sentiment. Those who were interned were forced to sell their all of the property with about a week's notice and general for pennies on the dollar.