Jackson feared that this decision would create a dangerous precedent for future national emergencies. However, he argued that this deference was not a blank check, and that courts still could overrule actions by the military that were unconstitutional. Justice Jackson took a more measured approach than Murphy, agreeing with the majority insofar as the additional deference owed to the military during wartime. It contrasted them with the more lenient treatment of German-Americans and Italian-Americans, who also had connections to nations with which the U.S. This dissent argued that the Executive Order and the policies implementing it were racist in nature. While it relied on a few different precedents from the majority's reasoning, Frankfurter's concurrence was based on the same logic of deference to military authorities in wartime. Black argued that the validation of the military's decision by Congress merited even more deference.

They relied heavily on a 1941 decision, Hirabayashi v. and particularly the West Coast (the region nearest Japan) secure from sabotage and invasion. The Ninth Circuit affirmed Korematsu's conviction, based on deference to the executive branch during wartime, and he appealed.īlack and the Justices who joined his opinion felt that the Executive Order did not show racial prejudice but rather responded to the strategic imperative of keeping the U.S. He responded by arguing that Executive Order 9066 violated the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution because habeas corpus had not been suspended, and his right to libery was being infringed by military action without due process of law. Korematsu was arrested and convicted of violating the order.

These orders applied to all Japanese-Americans in the U.S., whether or not they were suspected of sabotage or other conduct detrimental to the war effort.Ī Japanese-American man living in San Leandro, Fred Korematsu, chose to stay at his residence rather than obey the order to relocate. President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, two months after Pearl Harbor, and it was implemented three months later by Civilian Restrictive Order No. government decided to require Japanese-Americans to move into relocation camps as a matter of national security. His case became a symbol for the civil rights struggle in America and has particularly been highlighted following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the civil liberties infringements that took place against people of Middle Eastern descent.As part of the response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during the Second World War, the U.S. Legacy: Fred Korematsu’s conviction was overturned in November of 1983 when government documents were found that indicated the government failed to provide the Supreme Court with information they had that Japanese American citizens were not in fact a national security threat. Further, Jackson believed that even if such racially discriminatory orders were able to be considered reasonable under military terms, the civilian courts could not constitutionally assist the military in enforcing them and should leave it up to the military to act on them alone. First, that civilian courts in times of war should not review the constitutionality of military actions because a civilian judge in wartime would defer to military judgment and never term what was said to be militarily necessary as unconstitutional. His complex opinion pointed out that the military order was racist an attempt to hold a person guilty for the crime of being born of Japanese ancestry. Although they noted that this exclusion of citizens from set areas was constitutionally suspect it was justified because of the wartime circumstances. The majority held that the need in wartime to protect against espionage outweighed Korematsu’s individual rights. Supreme Court: The Court upheld Korematsu’s conviction in a 6-3 decision. He was arrested and convicted of violating Civilian Exclusion Order No. Fred Korematsu, at 23 years of age, failed to report to an assembly center and instead chose to remain in the San Leandro coastal area. They also authorized the transport of citizens to inland assembly centers. This combined with other congressional statutes gave the military broad power to ban any Japanese American citizen from the coastal areas between Washington and California. 9066, following the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. Background: Fred Korematsu was born in Oakland, California in 1919 to Japanese immigrants.

Korematsu v united states 1944