Lakhota
Diamond Member
The Return of Korematsu
Seventy years after the mass internment of Japanese Americans was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, the ugly ideas at the core of its decision are resurfacing.
“A Korematsu-type classification…will never again survive scrutiny,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg declared in a 1998 dissent. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in a recent book that the decision was “thoroughly discredited.” Justice Antonin Scalia, who previously compared it to Dred Scott, said during a speech last year that Korematsu was unequivocally “wrong.” But he also warned about repeating the same mistake in the future.
Expelling all Japanese Americans from the Pacific Coast would have seemed unthinkable in 1940. Then came the fear and paranoia that pervaded cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco after Pearl Harbor. Frenzied reports of Japanese submarines off Oregon and saboteurs in California fueled a climate in which extreme constitutional violations towards an unpopular few seemed reasonable to a fearful many.
Korematsu is a reminder that, in times of crisis, there will always be an unpopular minority to fear and opportunistic demagogues to demonize them. But central to the Bill of Rights’ purpose is the protection of the few from the cruelty of the many, no matter who that few or many may be.
Much More: The Return of Korematsu - The Atlantic
Islamic State’s Goal: “Eliminating the Grayzone” of Coexistence Between Muslims and the West
My fellow Americans - is this who we are? Is this what we have become?
Seventy years after the mass internment of Japanese Americans was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, the ugly ideas at the core of its decision are resurfacing.
“A Korematsu-type classification…will never again survive scrutiny,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg declared in a 1998 dissent. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in a recent book that the decision was “thoroughly discredited.” Justice Antonin Scalia, who previously compared it to Dred Scott, said during a speech last year that Korematsu was unequivocally “wrong.” But he also warned about repeating the same mistake in the future.
“But you are kidding yourself if you think the same thing will not happen again,” he said.
He used a Latin expression to explain why. “Inter arma enim silent leges … In times of war, the laws fall silent.”
“That’s what was going on—the panic about the war and the invasion of the Pacific and whatnot,” Scalia said. “That’s what happens. It was wrong, but I would not be surprised to see it happen again—in time of war. It’s no justification but it is the reality.”
He used a Latin expression to explain why. “Inter arma enim silent leges … In times of war, the laws fall silent.”
“That’s what was going on—the panic about the war and the invasion of the Pacific and whatnot,” Scalia said. “That’s what happens. It was wrong, but I would not be surprised to see it happen again—in time of war. It’s no justification but it is the reality.”
Expelling all Japanese Americans from the Pacific Coast would have seemed unthinkable in 1940. Then came the fear and paranoia that pervaded cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco after Pearl Harbor. Frenzied reports of Japanese submarines off Oregon and saboteurs in California fueled a climate in which extreme constitutional violations towards an unpopular few seemed reasonable to a fearful many.
Korematsu is a reminder that, in times of crisis, there will always be an unpopular minority to fear and opportunistic demagogues to demonize them. But central to the Bill of Rights’ purpose is the protection of the few from the cruelty of the many, no matter who that few or many may be.
Much More: The Return of Korematsu - The Atlantic
Islamic State’s Goal: “Eliminating the Grayzone” of Coexistence Between Muslims and the West
My fellow Americans - is this who we are? Is this what we have become?
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