Case Study: Korematsu V. United States

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Korematsu v. United States
Korematsu v. United States (1944) was a Supreme Court Case that dealt with the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066. This executive order was issued by President Franklin Roosevelt, and called that all Japanese Americans go into internment camps whether or not they were citizens. Fred Korematsu was a Japanese American who violated Executive Order 9066 by refusing to relocate during World War II. This court case ruled whether or not Executive Order 9066 was constitutional. The constitutional issue was whether or not it was morally right to send all Japanese Americans to internment camps. It also brought to attention that the Japanese were being discriminated against based on their race. The vote of the court was in favor of the government 6-3, stating that Executive Order 9066 was constitutional.
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He began with saying that legal restrictions on a single racial group will always be questionable, but that “courts must subject them to the most rigid scrutiny.” His reasoning behind the ruling was that while this Executive order brought about hardships for Japanese Americans, that hardships were just part of war. Also he believed that this order was constitutional because it was put in place to keep Americans safe and was made in everyone’s best interest. Also it was stated that protecting the country was a bigger issue than the individual rights of the Japanese Americans. One of the Dissenting Opinions was delivered by Justice Owen Roberts. In his dissent he said that it was wrong to convict a citizen for refusing imprisonment based entirely on their race. He stated that it violated constitutional rights to imprison someone without evidence or inquiry to their loyalty to the United