Korematsu V. United States
Case name: Fred Korematsu v. United States
Year decided: 1944
Result: 6-3, in favor of the United States
Related constitutional issue/amendment: Executive Order 9066, Fourteenth Amendment (due process clause and equal protection clause)
Civil rights or civil liberties: civil rights
Significance/precedent: Any law that treats people differently on the basis of race are immediately considered suspect classification and are subject to strict scrutiny by the Court. The United States's compelling state interest to protect its citizens against espionage outweighed Korematsu's rights. The compulsory exclusion enacted by the confinement of Japanese people to prevent espionage and disloyal actions is justified during times of "emergency and peril."
Quote from majority opinion: "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, and, finally, because Congress, reposing its confidence in this time of war in our military leaders -- as inevitably it must -- determined that they should have the power to do just this."
Summary of the dissent: This case of convicts a citizen for not submitting to imprisonment in a concentration camp, based on his ancestry, without evidence or investigation of his loyalty to the United States. The petitioner wished to remain in his home, and the contradictory orders the petitioner received were unfair to the petitioner.
Six-word summary: Suspect classification, strict scrutiny, Japanese contained.
Year decided: 1944
Result: 6-3, in favor of the United States
Related constitutional issue/amendment: Executive Order 9066, Fourteenth Amendment (due process clause and equal protection clause)
Civil rights or civil liberties: civil rights
Significance/precedent: Any law that treats people differently on the basis of race are immediately considered suspect classification and are subject to strict scrutiny by the Court. The United States's compelling state interest to protect its citizens against espionage outweighed Korematsu's rights. The compulsory exclusion enacted by the confinement of Japanese people to prevent espionage and disloyal actions is justified during times of "emergency and peril."
Quote from majority opinion: "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, and, finally, because Congress, reposing its confidence in this time of war in our military leaders -- as inevitably it must -- determined that they should have the power to do just this."
Summary of the dissent: This case of convicts a citizen for not submitting to imprisonment in a concentration camp, based on his ancestry, without evidence or investigation of his loyalty to the United States. The petitioner wished to remain in his home, and the contradictory orders the petitioner received were unfair to the petitioner.
Six-word summary: Suspect classification, strict scrutiny, Japanese contained.